


Spawn Project

by NapkinBox



Series: Spawn Project [1]
Category: Toaru Majutsu no Index | A Certain Magical Index
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-04-28 19:53:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 40,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5103707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NapkinBox/pseuds/NapkinBox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A secret project in Academy City comes to a close after over a decade of experiments and research. The Spawn Project predates the Radio Sisters and gave birth to the concept of Level 6; humans with supernatural abilities powerful enough to rival those of God. What will happen when the results of this experiment come to surface? My first story, enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Houdini

**Prologue**

“Don’t look at me like that. You know there were no other options.”

“I know.”

“Is that it? Just ‘I know’? I didn’t think you would be accepting the situation so easily.”

“It’s been 13 years, hasn’t it? So much progress and yet it all comes down to this. Everything that has been done is now for nothing. What will happen to us, the others, the ‘doc, the… the…”

“Everything else. Doesn’t matter. You and I will continue on with what we do best or just simply retire. The rest, the same. The ‘doc… I’m not so sure. He’s probably taking it the hardest than anyone else. This project has been more than just scientific accolades for him. A lot more personal, that is.”

“I know. No one will even know about this. They will just know that another research group has dissolved. All of our discoveries will be lost.”

“No. They’ll be securely kept by the higher ups. Who knows what they’ll goddamned do with them.”

“Right. What about… you know?”

“What about you? You were here since the beginning right? You helped design the virtual?”

“Yeah. I was completely stoked that the doc chose me to be the lead engineer. It wasn’t easy. Playing a virtual reality game is one thing, but putting one’s subconscious into a virtual world is on a completely whole other level! All actions acting as if they have real world consequence… Wow! Wait… You still haven’t answered my question, though.”

“God damnit. I know. I don’t know. Shit, I don’t even know why I care. Why do you care? Fuck, it doesn’t matter. Those little… bastards. We’re all ending up in the same place in the end. Give me a piece of that.”

“Heh. 13 years and still breathing fine, at least.”

“13 years of hearing that, too.”

**Part 1**

A spikey haired boy stands in front of a soda machine in the middle of a park. With a sigh of defeat, the boy punches the soda machine and looks up into the sky.

“Déjà vu. Just my luck.”

This actually hasn’t been the only time this young boy has lost to the infernal soda machine. The amount of money lost to this machine that could have taken multiple students to their dream universities sits mockingly within the confines of the metal contraption that continues to wait for victims passing by through the park.

A blimp slowly flies through the air doing its daily routine of weather reports, daily news, and loud rumbling noises.

“Eye witness reports say that the research facility disappeared into thin air. Researchers present within the facility were found unconscious in front of Tokiwadai Middle School. Two remaining researchers, however, remain missing.”

“Tokiwadai? That’s Mikoto’s school, isn’t it?”

While the boy continues to ponder, a loud clank noise is heard. The sound of explosions and rustling gears can be heard from the soda machine as it starts shaking left and right.

“W-what’s going on?”

After taking a few steps away from the raging machine, a soda can suddenly shoots out of the machine and hits the boy directly in the forehead, knocking him out and causing him to fall over.

**Part 2**

“What’s with you?”

“W-where…?”

“Hey, are you okay? You’ve been laying there for quite a while.”

Who knows how many people passing by saw this boy lying motionless in the middle of the walkway? It could be possible that someone believed it to be a corpse and called service for assistance. Then again, this is possibly one of those times where it’s best to just ignore it.

The boy laying on his back lazily tilts his head getting a better view of a young girl wearing a school uniform that looks like it belong to someone who is rather rich standing over him. In a bored sigh, he notices the girl is wearing shorts under her skirt before the girl gets down on her knees and places a hand on the boy’s forehead.

“Do you remember who I am? You must have lost your memories. I am Master Mikoto and you are my pet. When I found you as a small puppy, you agreed to do everything I say. I hope we can continue being close friends, Little Touma.”

“Nice try, bug zapper.”

“What, are you serious? The name’s Mikoto!”

“Uh! I’m joking, I’m joking!”

The second Touma feels vibrations through his head, he quickly grabs Mikoto’s wrist with his right hand. Any electricity running through Mikoto’s fingertips have ceased. Any second later and Touma’s brain would have definitely been fried.

With an annoyed look, Mikoto looks down at Touma with her hand still on the spot where the can hit him in the forehead. Suddenly, she tightens her grip, squeezing Touma’s forehead between her fingers with all her might.

“Ow oww! What are you doing that for!?”

Touma grabs Mikoto’s arm with both his hands, declaring war to see who the rightful owner to the boy’s forehead is. In a clear victory, Touma breaks free of Mikoto’s death grip and steps back, panting heavily as he talks.

“What the hell? What did I do to deserve this? Not only did I lose my money to that wretched machine, but it also sent a demon soda can at me and knocked me out! Then you appeared. Ah, just my luck!”

“Shut up. What do you know about it?”

“Huh? Well, it still hasn’t been fixed. Maybe you’ve been kicking it way too many times lately?”

“No, fool. That.”

Seeing Mikoto looking pissed off, Touma decides not to disobey and follow where she is pointing.

“Oh, you mean the news? Something about disappearing researchers, right?”

“So you do know about it?”

“Hey, hey! Don’t look at me like that! I found out about it before this machine knocked me out! I don’t know anything!”

After attempting to send Touma to hell with a menacing glare, Mikoto looks down defeated.

Just moments ago, Mikoto looked as if she were about to kill Touma any second with an attack that even the Imagine Breaker wouldn’t be able to deflect. With this sudden change in the mood, Touma comforts Mikoto by resting his right hand on Mikoto’s head.

“Hey, what’s the matter?”

“They took Kuroko.”

**Part 3**

“If what they are saying is true, then they’ll let Kuroko go safe and sound.”

“Is it really that easy? A building disappears and the researches suddenly appear in front of Tokiwadai. If you only look at the surface, it makes a lot of sense that it could be one of Tokiwadai’s most proficient teleporters. I’m not saying she actually did it.”

“I know, but Kuroko is only a Level 4. There’s no way she can suddenly teleport a large research facility and all those researchers at the same time!”

Touma can see Mikoto is holding in her rage. ESpers with teleportation powers are rare and those with exceptional talent with that ability is even rarer. Kuroko Shirai is one of those talented ESpers.

“Relax. You’re making a mess.”

Mikoto snaps out of her train of thought and realizes the strawberry cream from her crepe is starting to drip onto her hands.

She nonchalantly licks the cream from her hand and continues to talk.

“That’s not all. I checked the area where research facility used to be. I checked to make sure that it was definitely the area where the facility was located. The area looks as if it was never used before. Flat cement. No hints of construction or drainage or anything. Teleporting a building is one thing, but teleporting a building and removing all signs that a building used to be there? That’s impossible.”

“Sounds like one big magic trick. A disappearing building and no signs that a building was ever constructed. That is some riddle. Are other Tokiwadai students being suspected? Oh man, this is delicious!”

Mikoto looks over at Touma happily taking a bite out of his chocolate banana crepe. She smiles seeing the pleasure on the boy’s face.

“You know, this is where I usually hang out with Kuroko and other friends. Sitting on this bench while eating the crepe of the day.”

“Is that so? And are you usually late to get in line?”

“Shut it!”

A special edition Chef Gekota strap were available to the first 100 customers. Long story short, an embarrassing scene erupted when Mikoto realized why a Gekota strap didn’t come with her order.

Taking a large bite out of her strawberry crepe to calm herself down,

“It’s not like I need any more Gekota accessories you know. Everything I own has its own Gekota flair. There’s just no reason to show them off. Besides, how about before you make fun of my interests, you clean the chocolate off your nose!”

Finally noticing the spot of chocolate on his nose, Touma wipes it off with the napkin that came with the crepe.

Mikoto sighs in disappointment at Touma’s boring reaction.

“Other Tokiwadai students that also have some skill in teleportation have also been taken, but I don’t believe the officials are focusing too much on them. ESpers with powers to manipulate metal, gravel, and various minerals are also being taken to account, but I think Kuroko is the only one they are paying attention to for now. I just don’t get it.”

“Then I guess there’s nothing for us to do until this all settles. It’s being taken care of Anti-Skill, right? I’m sure once they realize that just teleporting a building away cannot fully explain the holes in the evidence, they’ll let her go. It’s going to be fine, Mikoto.”

Hearing the boy say her name soothes her heart. However, the concern over the health and safety of her closest friend stings deep inside her. She reaches over to grab the arm of the spikey haired boy.

“I even looked at the database. I also asked a friend of mine in Judgement to have a thorough check. There doesn’t seem to be any records of the lost research facility. It really is as if it didn’t exist at all.”


	2. Wishes

**Part 4**

Mikoto Misaka, the #3 Level 5 of Academy City and the Ace of Tokiwadai Middle School, looks over to the empty bed next to the one that she is laying on.

Normally, Mikoto wouldn’t be too bothered about her best friend, Kuroko Shirai, to be out for the night. It usually meant late night Judgement work. More importantly, the perfect night to sleep peacefully and soundly.

This night was a completely different feeling.

Kuroko Shirai and a number of other Tokiwadai students were taken by Anti-Skill officials for questioning about the disappearance of a research facility.

According to the evidence, Kuroko is the likely culprit. However, things just don’t add up.

While Kuroko is the most proficient teleporter of Tokiwadai, she is only Level 4 and does not have the capability to teleport a large amount of people, let alone an entire facility, all at once.

There is also the fact that the area where the said facility used to be located shows no signs of being used at all.

That is the biggest hole in the evidence.

It is strange that the officials have yet to acknowledge it. Or perhaps, they already have.

What’s bothering Mikoto the most, however, is that she is struggling to force herself from leaving the school grounds and infiltrating the building where Anti-Skill is holding her best friend.

She replays the conversation she had with Touma Kamijou earlier that day in her head over and over again.

_The Mikoto Misaka that I know isn’t going to let anything stop her from achieving her goal, especially when it comes to her friends. This is why I’m telling you to forget about it for now. I have full confidence in Anti-Skill that they will take care of her._

Turning over to her back, the buttons on her Gekota pajamas lazily fastened and is revealing her navel.

She lets out a loud sigh and places her right hand on her head, simulating the sensation of being petted.

“You idiot. Aren’t you talking about yourself?”

**Part 5**

All that is left is the cement pavement that the research facility was standing on and the fence surrounding the perimeter. No signs of any previous construction are visible.

No records of the research facility appear in the database either.

It’s as if it never existed at all.

Mikoto has been standing in the middle of the site for a few minutes. It is becoming hard to believe a building even existed here in the first place. Thoughts of anything occupying that large space is slowly leaving her head.

“This isn’t right. There has to be a clue somewhere.”

Shaking her head, Mikoto takes her first step away from the site and decides to walk around the perimeter and think.

“Even if the building were to be teleported away, it would be relocated somewhere else. There doesn’t seem to be any reports about any possible location of where the building is. It really has disappeared.”

Mikoto continues looking through news reports through her phone without looking where she’s walking.

Turning the corner of the block, Mikoto loses her breath and feels her body bounce backwards and falls over.

“Ow…”

“Shit, I’m really sorry.”

Immediately after Mikoto realizes she’s on the ground, the goosebumps on her arm start to rise as a human hand touches her skin and grabs her arm to pull her arm.

_Why do I feel so cold…?_

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“Oh, no, I’m fine. Thank you.”

The stranger smiles and Mikoto is taken aback by the stranger’s kindness.

Taking a good look at the stranger’s figure, he is clearly older than her by a couple years. Likely a high school student, but what he’s wearing doesn’t seem to be a uniform belonging to any of Academy City’s schools. It’s just a light blue button shirt and jeans.

Not complaining. It really is a refreshing site to the eyes.

There’s also a faint synthetic scent of the seaside in the air.

Watching the boy lower himself and picking an object up from the ground, he holds out the object in front of Mikoto.

“Is this yours?”

“Oh, yes, thank you.”

“That’s a nice frog strap, by the way.”

_A comrade!?_

“Th-thank you! It’s Gekota! Say, you don’t happen to be interested in the same thing, are you?”

“Well, not really. I mean, it’s pretty cool, I guess. I just happen to have a similar strap right here.”

Mikoto’s face comically turns into her usual cat face whenever she senses Gekota’s presence.

It’s one of the core elements to her ESper abilities, I guess.

“Chef Gekota!!”

“Yeah. I never ate a crepe before, so when I found a crepe stand I decided to try it. Then the woman handling the orders gave one to me. Perhaps, it’s good luck?”

“Yeah, good luck…”

Mikoto’s face then turns to sadness after remembering back of her failure to get in line on time to be one of the first 100 customers to get a free Chef Gekota strap.

The boy notices her feelings towards the straps and waves it left to right in front of her face.

He then lets out a chuckle after seeing Mikoto’s eyes sway back and forth glued to the swinging frog.

“Here, I’ll let you have it.”

“Are you serious!?”

“Why not? You didn’t even hesitate.”

Twirling the strap around, the frog flies away from his finger and up to the sky until it falls back down into Mikoto’s hands.

Mikoto stares at the frog in her hands, her mind occupied by excitement and thinking what she has done to deserve such fortune.

“Alright, well, I’ll be seeing you.”

Hearing the boy’s voice, Mikoto snaps out of it and holds the frog in her hands tightly.

“Wait! What’s your name?”

“…”

The boy stops walking and stands silently still as if that very question was a signal to shut down that boy’s mind.

Wondering why the boy has turned silent, Mikoto steps forward to check and see what’s wrong until a voice comes out of the boy’s mouth.

“That’s a Tokiwadai Middle School uniform, right?”

“Yes. I’m Mikoto Misaka.”

“I’ll see you around then, Mikoto.”

Mikoto watches the boy walk away without getting his name.

She looks down at her hands and sees the cute little frog and smiles.

“Thank you agai—“

Looking back up from her hands, the boy has suddenly disappeared.

**Part 6**

“Wishes!”

“Huh?”

“Wishes! I read that there are ESpers with the power to grant wishes and be able to do anything that they desire! Maybe someone was holding a grudge?”

“Oh please, Saten. You know that there’s no ESpers abilities like that. Besides, even if it were real, wouldn’t the person with that ability wish to be a millionaire, or a billionaire, or be as powerful as our Mikoto? The latter would be impossible without it!”

“Yeah, you’re right. It would be great to be able to grant wishes, right Mikoto? Like, I wish Uiharu would be wearing a brand new pair of panties todaaay~”

“Ah! Wait, stop, eek!”

“Oh wow, laces too~?”

“Saten, I told you to stop doing that!”

Mikoto laughs awkwardly at the usual playful nature between her two friends, Saten Ruiko and Uiharu Kazari. This skit that they do every day is a normal occurrence and is to be expected a number of times per day.

“Impossible, huh?”

Saten and Uiharu looks over at MIkoto, watching her constantly stir her ice cream to the point it became a milkshake.

“Lighten up, Mikoto. Uiharu checked it out and has even spoken to the Anti-Skill officials. They say that Uiharu is fine. Once they are completely sure of her innocence, they’ll let her go.”

“Shirai’s innocence is definitely a thing.”

“You’re right. I really should just let this one go. I’ve been feeling stressed out since this whole fiasco started. I even went to the site one more time and still haven’t found any clues.”

“Ooh, but I see you found a new friend!”

Mikoto watches Saten reach over the table and grabs the Chef Gekota strap from her school bag and starts twirling it around her finger.

“What’s this? You went to eat crepes without us~?”

“H-hey! That was given to me by someone else!”

“Oh!”

Saten and Uiharu stare at Mikoto with stars in their eyes.

“Is it that boy from the festival~?”

**Part 7**

Standing in the middle of a long bridge located in District 7 is a boy wearing a blue shirt.

The boy leans against the railing, watching the calm waves of the water dance.

He looks down at his hand. His hand opens and closes repeatedly with crystal-like objects appearing and changing form every time.

While the crystal-like object forms into random indescribable shapes, it sometimes takes form of real world objects such as a cross, a tall rectangular prism, and a head of a cartoon frog.

The boy stares at the frog-shaped head longer than the other shapes.

“She was interested in this, too.”

After staring at the crystal frog for a while, the boy crushes the crystal object within the palm of his hand and releases the crystal-like dust into the air.

“What was she looking for?"


	3. Magic Tricks

**Part 8**

The media has been covering the disappearing research facility and interviewed all the remaining researchers.

Unfortunately, not even the offense of the constant reporters had any luck on getting anything relevant out of them.

Except for one important piece of information.

The memories of the researchers regarding the missing facility that they worked in were either altered or completely erased.

Memories of their co-workers, regular life outside of research, and the heavy drinking and karaoke parties are all what’s left.

How can everything regarding about the disappearing research facility be wiped out from the face of the earth without anyone knowing why or what exactly happened?

These were the thoughts of Aiho Yomikawa, a female Anti-Skill operative with long blue hair who also has a job as a PE Teacher.

She stands in formation with a number of other Anti-Skill operatives as if they were soldiers of an army presenting a member of royalty.

Their purpose right now is to lead the researchers that appeared in front of Tokiwadai Middle School to the Supersonic Passenger Plane leading to Great Britain. They are being sent to be temporarily taken care of by an Academy City-operated psychiatric hospital.

The teacher in Anti-Skill looked forward sternly like a soldier taking their job with utmost seriousness.

However, this was not the case. Aiho Yomikawa is thinking heavily about the situation. She has been like this since the reports first started coming in.

She was like this until ordered to keep a safe distance from the Supersonic Passenger Plane.

After the passenger plane takes off, Yomikawa keeps her eyes on the plane as it climbs up in the air. Her train of thought continues to ponder on the possibilities that could have affected the memories of the researchers and the disappearance of the research facility.

She continues looking at the plane like a young child mesmerized by seeing a giant metal bird flying for the first time.

Slowly, her mind drifts away from the thoughts running through her mind. Holding her stomach, she tries to remember what kind of leftovers were left in the fridge back in her apartment complex.

Fish? Rice? Hamburgers? Can’t remember.

The thought of food is making the teacher hungrier by the second.

She stands still in that very spot for a good couple minutes until she hears the confused murmurs from her fellow Anti-Skill operatives.

Why was she staring up at the sky again?

**Part 9**

“How can that be? How can you not know anything about the research facility?”

“’Any records regarding the missing research facility does not exist within the network,’ says Misaka explaining even further.”

Touma had met up with one of the Misaka Sisters to find out more information about the research facility that disappeared out of thin air the previous day.

Contrary to Touma’s reassurance he gave to Mikoto the day before, the boy wanted to know more.

However, he was unable to get any useful information out of her.

**Part 10**

“’Misaka is also unable to find any information about the huge magic trick,’ says Misaka Misa—“

“Shut it, you little brat!”

**Part 11**

“’Furthermore, reports say the researchers that were relocated from the aforementioned research facility have had their memories altered or erased,’ further explains Misaka, trying to get the annoying boy off her back.”

“Oh great. I guess I can also thank that to my bad luck. Geez, Mikoto has been feeling really down lately because of this whole thing. I really thought I can get any information at all that would make her feel better and possibly prove Shirai’s innocence.”

Hearing the boy mention the name that belongs to the original source of the Sisters, Misaka reaches for the heart-shaped necklace she had around her neck and presses it firmly against her chest.

Touma sighs in defeat.

“Asking one of them is out of the question now. I have no other options left.”

“’How about tea?’”

Touma looks at Misaka, taken aback by the sudden invitation from the usually unperturbed girl.

Why is she getting closer?

“’Would you like to drink tea,’ asks Misaka in a nicer tone of voice, making sure to look deeply into the boy’s eyes to stimulate the feeling of seren—‘”.

“What’s this sudden form of attack!?”

The calm and emotionless clone grabs Touma’s hand as she walks passed him, pulling him along to her side.

Touma struggles to keep his balance while being pulled by the younger Misaka Sister.

**Part 12**

The streets of District 7 was completely filled with people.

In most cases, this wouldn’t be unusual, however, the reason why these people are here is very strange.

Standing in front of the tall windowless building of District 7, hundreds of citizens are staring in awe and pointing up at the sky. Not believing what’s in front of their eyes, many are taking pictures and immediately sending them and their thoughts to their personal blogs and other social media sites within the Academy City network.

Anti-Skill operatives and vehicles occupy the streets as well.

HsB-02s, now only used for internal city protection, covered the skies along with helicopters owned by the news stations.

Anyone witnessing what these people were seeing would take many more than just a mere double-take to make sure if their eyes were working properly.

Directly in front of the face of the windowless building is a large Supersonic Passenger Plane in the middle of flight.

Actually, that’s not an accurate way of putting it.

If one were flying this passenger plane, one would definitely say it is currently being operated and is in the state of flight. However, this plane is defying the laws of universe and is currently still. The nose of the plane is barely touching the window building by a fraction of a centimeter.

It was as if an invisible giant is taunting the windowless building by holding the plane back from crashing into it.

Anyone seeing this phenomena happening in front of their eyes would get an ominous chill down their spine.

Mikoto Misaka, Saten Ruiko, and Uiharu Kazari noticed the commotion happening outside of their usual hangout at Joseph’s and went out to see what was going on.

“What the hell is this?”

Mikoto cannot believe what she was seeing. People were flooding the streets until it became impossible to navigate through and the skies were filled with helicopters.

What she fails to accept is the large passenger plane in the middle of flight but refuses to move from its fixated position.

“Mikoto, I’m scared…”

“Don’t worry, Uiharu. If anything happens, I’ll take care of it.”

In truth, Mikoto is a bit frightened herself. Is the plane going to suddenly move and crash into the building? Is it suddenly going to fall? What about the passengers inside the plane? Are there even any passengers on it at all? How did the plane even get there in the first place? Even if the plane wasn’t there, the amount of people gathering in the streets would cause a lot of accidents or trouble. The whole atmosphere of the situation would be too much for a regular person to take it and will probably snap.

“You guys go back to the shop. It’s safer there. If it’s all clear, I’ll meet up with you.”

“Right!”

“You take care, okay, Misaka?”

Before Mikoto could even respond, her eyes suddenly fixated into Saten’s eyes. Her eyes were filled with fear and worry about her friend.

The Level 5 responds with a smile that immediately soothes the long hair girl’s heart.

“You too, Saten.”

The girls exchanged smiles and went off their separate ways.

**Part 13**

“Fascinating.”

Those words came out in an obviously sarcastic tone from a high-schooler in a blue buttoned shirt standing outside of the huge gathering that is looking up at the physics-defying passenger plane.

“If anything, this one takes the cake. I’m not even sure what’s going on anymore. Academy City sure is interesting.”

After a sigh of boredom, the boy turns and walks away from the loud commotion and into a nearby alley.

After walking for a bit, the boy in blue finds himself in the middle of an open space of the alleyway with multiple pathways.

“Did I…”

The boy looks around from his position, not recognizing which alley he even came from.

The noises from the commotion in the streets, to his surprise, could not be heard.

“Fuck, did I seriously get lost?”

The boy looks up and sees the blue sky as the only available exit to this labyrinth.

“’You have nowhere else to go,’ says Misaka-13577, warning the mysterious boy before attempting his escape.”

The boy quickly turns to face where the sudden voice came from.

Appearing from the other side of the open space is girl in a Tokiwadai uniform wearing high-tech goggles over her eyes.

Other than the goggles, the neck-length hair and body shape looked very similar to another girl the boy met earlier that day.

“Are you… Mikoto?”

“’Incorrect. We are clones of the original. The original whose name you mentioned belongs to,’ says Misaka-10339, further correcting the ignorant boy.”

That voice was the exact same voice from the girl standing in front of him, however, it did not come from the same girl.

Turning to his left where the voice came from, another exact model of the previous girl appears from the shadows.

The exact same Tokiwadai Middle School uniform and high-tech goggles covering the eyes.

“’Misaka is very sorry for doing this to you, but according to current evidence, you are the likely culprit,’ says Misaka-19090, threatening the confused boy.”

Again, the boy turns behind him and sees another girl that looks exactly like Mikoto and the first two “clones”.

The only difference is that her voice seemed to be more emotional than the first two. The boy couldn’t help but notice her knees were shaking as well.

Another thing that the boy couldn’t help but notice is the large high-tech sub machine gun unsuitable for a girl like her.

The fragile clone readies her weapon, causing a loud clanking noise.

Similar clanking noises can be heard around him.

The boy was surrounded by three clones of Mikoto Misaka with their high-tech weapons aiming directly at him.

_Tatatatatatatatata. Tatatatatatatatatata. Tatatatatatatatatatatatatatata._


	4. Protection

**Part 14**

“How interesting.”

Aleister Crowley, the General Superintendent of Academy City, watches from within the confines of a giant tube inside a secluded room located within the windowless building.

“Is this supposed to be some kind of warning?”

Aleister has a watchful hold on Academy City. Microscopic cameras the size of a molecule occupy every single space within Academy City. Aleister uses these cameras to watch over everything that goes on around Academy City.

He was practically omnipresent, but not omniscient.

Aleister couldn’t comprehend why a passenger plane suddenly appeared in front of the windowless building. There were no signs of a plane flying near or within the space of District 7.

It just appeared in a blink.

What Aleister did understand, however, that this particular passenger plane belongs to Academy City; and only one passenger plane was scheduled to take flight today. The same passenger plane that was designated to take the researchers from Academy City to Great Britain.

This was the same passenger plane.

Aleister did not know who or what caused this to happen, or even why, but as Aleister ran through countless possibilities in his head, he started getting an idea.

“I guess they never cleaned up their mess.”

What Aleister was thinking was a certain secret experimental project that he decommissioned only a couple months ago. He was starting to believe that these strange happenings the last couple days must have something to do with the results from that experiment.

Letting out a bored sigh, Aleister continues to watch over Academy City.

Aleister had no worries about the passenger plane outside his building. He took it as someone trying to warn or mock him.

He had no time for petty games.

If the plane were to crash into the building, the building will show no effect.

There is nothing in existence that could damage the windowless building.

“There’s nothing much I can do but keep watching. This might turn out to be fun.”

**Part 15**

Mikoto Misaka pushed through the large crowd of people surrounding the windowless building.

Most were taking pictures or discussing what is actually happening. Some were on their phones calling friends and family while others were posting on online discussion forums. The rest stared at the phenomena in shock and awe. Very little decided to walk away and continue on with their lives.

Anti-Skill is taking precautions and trying to push back the large crowd away from the passenger plane.

Mikoto didn’t actually have a plan.

The whole situation was definitely weird, but Mikoto didn’t have a slightest idea of what to do about it.

Overhearing the commotion of the people around her, Mikoto learned that the passenger plane literally appeared out of nowhere, similarly to how the researchers appeared in front of Tokiwadai. It also reminded her of the missing research facility that was believed to be “teleported” away.

There was no way the passenger plane could have flown all the way to District 7 without anyone noticing until it reached its destination other than teleportation.

The thought of that was stinging Mikoto’s heart.

What teleportation doesn’t explain is the fact that the passenger plane is fixated at the very same location. There is literally nothing holding it up or preventing it from crashing into the windowless building, but it continues to defy the laws of the universe.

Mikoto continued pushing through the large crowd until she was free. She leaned against the window of a fashion store for a minute in order to catch her breath.

_Hold on… that power…_

Static electricity started dancing on the tips of her hair.

As an ESper of electromagnetism, Mikoto is able to sense similar wavelengths in close proximity.

It made it even clear when those wavelengths were exactly the same as hers.

Following her senses, Mikoto quickly ran to the closest alleyway.

**Part 16**

_Tatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatatata._

The sound of gunshots were deafening and filled the air. Empty bullet shells litter the ground with every shot. Flashes from the gun light up the dark alleyway like fireworks.

This kept going for about a minute.

The Misaka Sisters fully intended to annihilate their target, and they did so at the fullest extent.

However…

“God damn… I honestly did not see that coming.”

Their target was the boy with the blue buttoned shirt. They unloaded their ammunition for about a minute, enough that would completely destroy a portion of a stone brick wall.

It was clearly not enough.

The boy was completely unharmed, showing no visual effects to his skin or clothing.

The pile of bullets surrounding him were covered in a crystal-like coating.

“I’m not really sure what to say. I really have no idea why you’re attacking me.”

The boy said in a genuinely confused tone.

“’A sheet of ice,’ says Misaka observing the situation.”

“Oh, so you’ve noticed?”

If anyone was watching, they would say that the bullets clearly bounced off the boy’s body without leaving a scratch or imprint. However, that was not the case.

The bullets never reached their intended target. Instead, they bounced off just inches before making contact with the boy in blue.

“I compressed the air molecules around me and created a solid sheet of ice. I can also affect the transparency of it so I can make it virtually invisible.”

The boy took a step forward the Misaka to his right, stepping on one of the fallen bullets and crushing it.

“I can also render the durability of it so that it breaks like a wet piece of paper.”

Misaka-19090 took a step back after seeing the crushed bullets under the boy’s foot.

“Are you scared?”

Unable to hold her gun up steadily to aim directly at the boy, the frightened Misaka clone continues to step a couple steps back, her legs clearly shaking.

Misaka-19090 is slightly different from the other Misaka Sisters. This Sister in particular has been implanted with a code that allows her to express more human-like emotions. As time goes by, Misaka-19090 will become more “human” than the other Sisters.

The boy watches the scared Sister and starts to feel sorry for her. At the same time, he makes sure that the other two Sisters don’t catch him by surprise.

It’s strange for him to see a clone with more emotions than the others. The other two Sisters continue to observe the boy’s actions with the same emotionless look on their faces.

Suddenly, the sound of glass, or ice, breaking can be heard.

Catching the Sisters by surprised, the submachine guns in their hand exploded, but not into metal pieces and fire like a regular gun should.

It also wouldn’t be accurate to say that it exploded.

The gun shattered into smaller pieces, fossilized within a crystal coating similar to the bullets that were fired.

The Sisters acted surprised to see their weapons instantaneously shattered within their hands, however they immediately regained the posture as if it was something that they had expected.

Misaka-19090, however, fell back and tried to push herself back up. She immediately stopped and froze the moment she laid eyes on the boy who was standing over her.

The other two Sisters did nothing but watch. Seeing one of their own Sisters in danger, they wanted to rush in and help her, but something was preventing them from moving their legs.

They weren’t even able to feel the lower half of their body, but only coldness.

The boy lowered himself to one knee, putting himself on a similar level as the fallen Sister.

He made a fist with his hand and lifted it in front of the Sister’s face.

Like a big brother teasing his little sister, he casually flicked his index finger against the high-tech goggles, causing them to shatter to smaller blocks of ice.

With the goggles removed from the Sister’s face, her eyes were exposed for the boy to see. The poor Sister’s eyes were filled with pure fear. They were in such a state that she looked like she was about to cry.

It was because of this boy that the poor Misaka Sister started to relive the dreadful experiences the past Sisters had to go through. Thoughts of blood, darkness, and a certain white-haired boy started running through the clone’s head.

Her impression of this boy in blue was that of the same ilk as the white-haired boy that killed over 10,000 of her Sisters.

The reason why this is possible is due to the memories of all Sisters being recorded within the Misaka Network.

The boy looked deep into the eyes of the fallen Sister. Realizing the fear in her eyes as genuine, he looked towards the ground away from her.

He was thinking when was the last time he looked straight into the eyes of a girl in the same manner as this clone.

He clenched his fist, but immediately relaxed back to his calm state and looked back at the clone.

Seeing the Sister in a state of fear and shock, the boy smiled, but not a way that would terrify the clone.

It was a smile full of compassion.

The boy put his hand on Misaka-19090’s forehead and proceeded to gently pet her.

“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”

After hearing those words, the frightened Sister is shocked but starts to slowly calm down. Still scared of the situation that she is in, she continues to be on her guard.

The other Sisters are also taken aback by what they are witnessing.

“I just want to know why—“

“Let her go!”

Blue electricity is shot through the air towards the boy in blue, passing him and crashing into the ground behind him causing an explosion and a cloud of cement dust.

“Step away from her right now!”

The Level 5 Railgun, Mikoto Misaka, steps out of the shadows from the alleyway behind the fallen Sister.

Blue static electricity runs through her body, her hair looking as if they are dancing due to the electromagnetism.

“I’m going to tell you one more time. If you don’t want your brain to stop functioning where you’re standing, I suggest you step away from her now!”

**Part 17**

“Excuse me? Excuuuse me?”

Inside a small fast food shop, a girl is trying to order one of the expensive hotdogs the shop was known for.

Apparently, the cashier was too busy watching the news about the mysterious passenger plane on a mini television on the counter.

After noticing what was playing on the television, the girl smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand and shakes her head in disappointment.

“Fuck me.”

The girl runs her fingers through her long brunette hair.

The television suddenly stops functioning completely, snapping the cashier from his trance.

“Hey, what’s going on with this thing? I just bought this yesterday! Gahh!”

“Hi, can I order one of those expensive hotdogs?”

“Hm? Oh, sure, I’ll get it ready.”

As the employee starts preparing the hotdog, he tries starting a conversation with the waiting customer.

“So, have you heard of the passenger pla—“

“Shut up.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, and extra relish, mustard, and peppers, please.”

“Yes, ma’am. Do you know about that missing re—“

“I said shut up. Oh, and can I have that frog strap next to that fan over there?”

The girl pointed at the fan with a strap of a cartoon frog hanging from it. The frog was in a Hawaiian leaf skirt and was playing a ukulele.

“Oh, that? That was a gift from one of my daughters.”

“Can I have it?”

“Absolutely!”

The employee grabbed the strap and handed it to the customer, at the same time handing the expensive hotdog wrapped in foil.

“That will be—“

“Free?”

“Oh, of course!”

**Part 18**

“God that gave me a freakin’ headache…”

Standing outside of the hot dog shop, she unwraps the hotdog that she just “bought”.

She was in District 7, but in an area where less people were gathering. Even then, they were still talking about the passenger plane and watching from a distance.

They were probably smart enough to keep themselves safe.

After licking her lips, the girl takes a huge bite into the hotdog, chewing it happily, finding herself in bliss.

All of a sudden, she spits it out in disgust.

“Ahh! What was that!? That was horrible! Do the people in Academy City not know how to make a good hotdog!?”

With the strange things that have been happening in Academy City in the last couple of days, it’s probably not that much of a surprise if there are people panicking and getting paranoid of the whole situation.

It’s possible that the hotdog man was busy thinking about his life rather than focusing on making a good hotdog.

It wouldn’t be surprising if there was anything in the hotdog that wasn’t supposed to be in there.

Annoyed, the girl raises her empty hand next to the hotdog. Faster than a blink of an eye, an exact replica of the hotdog the girl just took a bite from appeared in her empty hand.

Holding both hotdogs up next to each other, she smiles in satisfaction and takes a bite from the newly formed hotdog.

“Ohh god! It’s perfect! This is what a hotdog should be!”

The girl once again found pure bliss and ecstasy as she ate her hot dog. With each bite, she lets out an audible moan that would make anyone near her feel embarrassed.

Her dream-like state was broken when she heard a nonchalant, annoying high voice next to her.

Turning her head towards the direction of the voice, there standing a smiling short girl covered in all white. Her clothes reminded her of some sort of religious faction.

“I believe it is common courtesy for people to share food when there is extra in hand.”


	5. Reboot

**Part 19**

“Thank you for the hotdog, by the way. I really appreciate it. It was really delicious! It had a particular tangy taste to it that I really enjoyed. Oh, and that satisfying crunch from each bite really tingles the inside of your mouth, but it makes you want to take even bigger bites! Oh, it was so heavenly!”

_What was in that hotdog!?_

The brunette girl covered her mouth with her hand, hoping she doesn’t throw up from the taste she was forced to imagine in her head that the small girl in white seemed to enjoy.

The girl didn’t think much when she handed the hotdog that she believed to be rotten to the small girl, but when the girl immediately showed a delightful expression from taking a bite out of the hotdog, she was afraid that she have given her the delicious one.

It wouldn’t have been too much of a problem if she did. She could just make another one.

That fact that this small girl in white actually likes it is what she found to be completely terrifying.

She took another glance at the cheerful girl as they walked, taking another notice of her religious clothing that resembled that of a nun.

“I didn’t know that there was any religious interest in a city that’s on the forefront of science.”

“My name is Index. You’re really nice, you know? What’s your name?”

The nun completely dodged her question.

She wasn’t even sure if the small girl even heard her.

“Oh, my name isn’t that important. You’re fine with just the hotdog, aren’t you?”

“But I really want to thank you properly! Anyone who feeds me delicious food has to be a nice person.”

_Does she only think of food?_

“Besides, I really like you. Not only did you feed me, but I’ve had a fun time with you. I hope we can be friends from now on!”

_Friends?_

The brunette girl stopped in her tracks when that word came out of Index’s mouth.

Index did enjoy the hotdog that the girl fed her, and she did seem to greatly appreciate being with her. What the girl thought was surprising was how immediate the girl seemed to revere their growing friendship. They only had a small conversation when the nun first appeared. The hotdog was not just because Index was looking cute and desperate, but it was too make sure she would keep quiet for a while longer.

The sudden offering of friendship from someone, especially this strange nun, was not something that the girl thought to be considered normal.

The girl placed her hands on her hips and gauged the situation, looking at the nun intimidatingly

“What, are you serious?”

“Yes!”

The brunette was taken by surprise by the immediate response and the bright smile on Index’s face that would entice even the most cold-hearted human beings.

It had to be a trick, but everything about this nun seemed to be completely genuine.

The girl’s blue eyes started to turn purple and glistened. After a couple seconds, they turned back to their original colour. The girl’s face turned to an embarrassing red shade.

She knew in her heart that this nun was speaking the truth.

“…Masami. Masami Tsukikawa.”

“Thank you for the food, Masami! I hope we can be good friends!”

“Yeah. I hope so to— kah!”

Masami was interrupted by a sudden cough. The force from the cough gave her a sudden pain in her head.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a small headache.”

Masami took a deep breath and tapped the side of her head a few times. She then readjusted her clothes to make sure they didn’t wrinkle from the sudden movements.

Index stared at the girl’s movements to make sure she was really feeling alright.

“Oh, there’s something else I wanted to ask you.”

“What’s that?”

“Are you from Academy City? I thought you were a student, but you don’t see many students wearing those types of clothes.”

Index was right.

Masami looked down at her own clothes, trying not to be offended by the nun’s remarks. After a while, she thought about it and couldn’t seem to remember seeing any other girls around her age expressing the same kind of fashion sense outside of school uniforms.

Instead of dull colors and patterned clothing, Masami wore her usual brand clothing consisting of a pink shirt, jean shorts that don’t even reach halfway down her thighs, and a brown open cardigan.

“Well, that’s fine. Everybody has their own personal tastes, right? I like being unique and sexy!”

Accepting the fact, she sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.

As her hair swayed, Index noticed a shiny earring on Masami’s right ear. It seemed to be made of amethyst.

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived in Academy City my whole life. I never really got the chance to go out and explore the city, though, you know? I was always kept indoors and never really had the chance to see the— what are you looking at?”

“Wow, that’s a pretty earring. Oh! One more thing. Do you know what’s going on over there?”

Before Masami could completely answer Index’s first question, the nun quickly turned around and pointed towards the large windowless building that lots of people in District 7 have been gathering around.

They are spectating the phenomena of a physics-defying passenger plane.

Masami observed the scene and smacked her forehead with her hand, lowering her head.

“This is why I can never be a good mother.”

**Part 20**

Over the skies of District 7, bolts of lightning shot out from the fingers of a certain middle school student.

Mikoto Misaka is using her electromagnetic powers in order to have a magnetic contact onto the buildings below her, allowing her to “pull” herself through the air.

At the same time, the electricity being shot out from Mikoto’s finger tips are targeting a certain boy in blue.

“You’re pretty good at aerial combat, I see.”

The boy kept dodging every single bolt of electricity coming from the Level 5 Railgun.

He would take sharp turns, spins, and rolls as he dodged them. The same kind of maneuvers that a military aircraft would use during a dogfight. At the same time, his movements were smooth and elegant, like a professional ice skater.

The reason why this is possible is because of a path of solid ice that continues to generate beneath the boy’s feet. This allows the boy to travel through the air by sliding, or “surfing”.

The boy never kept his eyes off Mikoto. He continued to evade Mikoto’s attacks so far while blindly travelling towards a random direction.

With a flick of his finger, shards of ice shot out from the boy’s finger tips and flew towards Mikoto.

Mikoto didn’t think about moving out of the way.

The electricity generating throughout her body caused the ice shards to shatter before they could reach their target.

As if the electricity itself had a mind of their own, it retaliated by striking the boy with another bolt of electricity, however, continuing to miss.

The boy let out a chuckle and said in a playful tone,

“Wow, you’re pretty persistent.”

“You’re not giving me much of a challenge. Besides, I had a lot of practice.”

It was true; Mikoto did have lots of practice chasing a certain spikey hair boy throughout Academy City. She has gotten used to the role of a hunter.

What she couldn’t understand was why this boy in blue refuses to fight her. She thought that he was just leading her to a trap, but she felt that this boy was strong enough to take care of himself in a heads-on fight. Furthermore, the location they were heading towards did not show any signs of danger.

Mikoto did not feel that her life was currently in danger, but still believed she had to stop that boy after seeing him threaten the lives of the Sisters.

**Part 21**

“Where are all these people coming from?”

Touma Kamijou was holding onto Mikoto-10032’s hand, guiding her through the large amount of people ranging from students to businesspeople. They all seemed to be walking away from something. What Touma noticed was the blank look on all their faces.

Was there a concert? An event? Touma took his cellphone out and checked the date on the calendar to see if there wasn’t an Academy City festival that he had forgotten and unfortunately missed.

It could just be a coincidence.

“’Where are you taking Misaka,’ asks Misaka, analyzing the situation making sure she doesn’t fall into some sort of trap crafted by the devious boy.”

“H-hey, where did that come from!? There’s a small shop around here that I heard makes some delicious snacks. I also hear they make some pretty good tea as well! Ah, here it is.”

Touma stopped in front of a small café. Looking through the window, it looks to be quite homey inside.

Misaka-10032 observed the building and looked up towards a sign with large letters.

Joseph’s.

“’This is a fast food chain,’ Misaka says with disgust. ‘I believe the products sold here are to be substandard and second-rate compared to an establishment that specializes in tea.’”

“Ah, don’t be so picky! Here, I’m sure you’ll like it. I bet after today, you’ll be begging me to take you back!”

“’Misaka thinks the boy’s choice of words is too inadequate to successfully secure what they call: a second-date,’ Misaka says with disdain in her voice.”

“Now hold on! Don’t get the wrong idea! Let’s just go in, shall we?”

Before the Misaka-10032 could follow the boy into the store, she was interrupted by a sight of similar looking girls in Tokiwadai uniforms past the moving people.

On the other side of the street were three additional Misaka Sisters. Two of them were watching her blankly while holding onto a third who seemed to be completely flustered.

“’I desire milk tea.’”

“What was that? Hey! Misaka, where’re you going!?”

Before Touma could stop her, the Sister he invited ran through the large amount of people before losing sight of her from the large wave.

“What’s up with her?”

Looking at the area where she last saw the Sister, Touma looked up into the sky and noticed one of the three-bladed wind turbines scattered across Academy City was spinning on its own.

He looked around and noticed all the wind turbines were being operated.

“Oh, is that Touma Kamijou?”

Touma looked around to find where that female voice was coming from. When he peaked his head inside the café, he noticed a girl with long black hair waving at him.

“Hey, long time no see! Sit over here! We met at the Daihasei festival, remember?”

“Oh, Saten, right?”

“Yep!”

After realizing who the girl was, Touma Kamijou came up to the table she was sitting at and sat right next to her.

There was an additional girl with flowers in her hair sitting at the same table.

“Is this that boy from the festival?”

“That’s right, Uiharu!”

Saten Ruiko had a sly look on her face, measuring the boy’s figure with her eyes.

Taking the initiative, Saten grabbed Touma’s arm and threw her body at him like a touchy girlfriend.

“Ahh! Saten!”

“Don’t worry, Uiharu! So, Touma, have you been doing anything with Misaka lately?”

Touma looked at her embarrassingly from her sudden actions. Saten Ruiko was holding onto him tightly.

“Um, Mikoto? Well, I did see her yesterday. She seemed to be in bad mood so I tried to make her feel better, that’s all.”

“Ooh, ‘Mikoto’?”

Saten continued teasing the boy, making him off-balanced as she keeps pulling onto his arm.

“Satan and I were just with Misaka, but she had to go off somewhere.”

“Yeah! She told us to stay here so she could… actually, I don’t remember why she left.”

**Part 22**

The four Misaka Sisters were standing at an entrance to an alleyway.

Three of them were having a discussion while one of them was holding onto the shoulders of a fourth clone who seems to be in a nervous wreck.

Misaka-10032 glanced over to the nervous Sister and back to the other two who were comforting her.

“’The situation was changed. Large packets of data spanning the last couple of days have been removed from the Network by an outside force,’ Misaka-10032 says, summarizing the final details.”

“’…Mi…’”

The three Sisters quickly turned to the nervous Sister.

“’What is it, Misaka-19090,’ asks Misaka-10032 with worry in her voice.”

**Part 23**

Index was standing alone with Masami in the middle of the street.

Index was staring at the windowless building for a number of minutes before her mind finally starts to wander somewhere else.

“I forgot what I was doing. Did you get a strange feeling too, Masami? Ah! Masami!”

When Index turned around and looked at Masami, she noticed Masami was moving side to side like she was about to fall over.

Index quickly ran up to her and used her strength to keep her from collapsing.

“What’s the matter, Masami? Are you okay?”

Index was worried about her new-found friend who suddenly looked quite ill.

Masami held her head and let out a quiet giggle.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine. Just… a little tired…”

**Part 24**

On a certain iron bridge located in District 7, Mikoto Misaka and the boy in blue are facing each other trying to anticipate each other’s moves.

However, this is more of a one-sided affair on Mikoto’s part.

Mikoto Misaka, Academy City’s #3 Level 5, has been chasing this unknown boy through the skies of District 7 to be led to this iron bridge.

She was exhausted from all the chasing but knew she shouldn’t just give up now.

The boy was relaxed as he always has been, never taking his eyes off the Electromaster.

“Do you really have to do this? You can’t touch me, and I don’t want to harm you, Mikoto.”

The boy didn’t have a reason to fight Mikoto. This confrontation started off as a misunderstanding when Mikoto came in believing the boy was going to harm the life of one of the Sisters when he was actually trying to show comfort.

Mikoto looked down at the ground, her heavy breathing was becoming audible. A grin appeared on her face.

“Please, the fun is about to start.”

After saying those words, Mikoto held up a silver arcade coin in her hand and aimed it at her target.

“You’re going to wish you never messed with my sisters!”

In less than a second, an orange light instantly shot from the girl’s thumb propelling the coin in her hand towards the boy. A trail of orange light followed the coin making it resemble that of a laser.

A delayed thunderous roar followed and a shockwave occurred damaging the cement and metal on the bridge causing debris to separate the boy and the Railgun user.

At speeds three times faster than the speed of sound, the boy had no time to react to the sudden attack.

Confident that her trump card had a direct hit on its target, Mikoto smiled and watched as the debris slowly dissipate.

Her smile immediately dispersed. Mikoto could not believe what she saw through the debris that occupied the air.

In front of her, the boy is still standing at the exact same spot before MIkoto used her Level 5 ability, Railgun.

It was not that the boy had no time to react, but the boy chose not to evade Mikoto’s attack.

The boy was holding his fist up.

“Academy City is 20-30 years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to technology, but not even Academy City has made any progress in light-based quantum memory.”

Mikoto’s eyes widen at the boy’s words. She thought about what the boy has said and slowly stepped back.

“Scientists were able to trap a light into a medium, such as a crystal, by collapsing its state of quantum superposition. However, it was only possible with multiple sources of light. They’ve experimented using one light source and a multitude of reflective mirrors in order to achieve the same effect. I’d say that my way of doing it would be more effective, but to be honest, it doesn’t quite satisfy their original goal.”

The boy opened his hand revealing a cylinder made of ice that contained a bright orange light vibrating within the core.

Mikoto’s knees started to shake.

“Who… what are you?”

The boy tosses the ice cylinder in the air and catches a number of times. Seeing the fear in Mikoto’s eyes, the boy sighs thinking he has gone a little too far.

He catches the cylinder in-between his middle and index finger and says in a smug voice,

“An ESper.”


	6. Remember

**Part 25**

“Damnit, Damian… This is not you! You are the king! You can’t let those Russian fucks get the best of you! Grraah!!”

Smashing his thumbs against the surface of his portable device, flashing colours and numbers fill the screen accompanied by noises resembling of sword slashes and explosions.

“Time it! Hit it! Hit it! Deny! Deny! Go go go! Kill the purple boss man, damnit! Wait! No! Are you serious!? Shit! My teammates always suck!”

Damian was walking around District 7 playing a new online video game that recently had its international release.

The point of the game is to select one of many playable characters that each have their own special abilities. Once you’ve selected, you are put up with four other players around the world that each have their own character and must face against a team with five characters of their own. The way you win is to completely annihilate the other team through a series of objectives.

Clearly, he wasn’t good at this sort of game.

Immediately putting his device into his pocket, Damian wipes the sweat off his face and runs his hand through his glistening red spikey hair.

“I need to go cool myself off somehow. Ah, maybe here?”

Seeing what looked like a decent small restaurant, Damian opened the door to hear a jingle of bells.

Damian was greeted by a smiling waitress with blue frills and a white apron.

“Welcome, sir, would you like to take a seat?”

“Yeah, one by the window.”

“Of course.”

Damian followed the waitress, leading him to an empty table that was so clean it reflected the outside like a mirror. This certain restaurant definitely took its own care very seriously, despite looking like a regular coffee shop.

Damian took a seat on one of the empty sides of the table and immediately started to slouch, rubbing his arms and hands on the cold rubber seats.

“Ahh this feels absolutely amazing! Aaaand it’s gone.”

The boy sighed in disappointment once the seats started to feel warm.

“May I take your order?”

The waitress took out a pen and notepad, smiling as she waits for a response.

Damian had a grin on his face as his sly eyes looked up and down measuring the waitress’s figure.

“Oh, I think you know what I want.”

Those seductive words came out of the red head’s mouth while he twirled his index finger in the air.

Seeing the waitress’s face turn red, he licked his lips and continued inspecting his new trophy.

“I-I, umm, I deeply apologize, sir, but I… don’t recognize you coming… into our store before.”

As the girl’s words started to muddle, she lets out a gasp when she detected a burning sensation around her lower body.

“Is that so?”

The waitress looked at Damian, biting her lips when her eyes trapped themselves within his seductive gaze. His thumb and index finger were rubbing against each other, and the more they did the more the burning sensation became stronger.

“I… I…”

The mood had a dramatic change when Damian’s face was replaced with a bright smile like that of a child.

“That’s okay! I’d like a chocolate caramel swirl ice cream!”

The waitress almost jumped from the sudden change of aura.

“O-oh! Yes! Yes, your order will be coming up right away!”

The waitress quickly jots down Damian’s order and happily skips away.

With a bored sigh, Damian snaps his fingers and a loud shriek from the back of the café is heard.

He looks out the window watching a number of cute school girls chatting and laughing as they walk. With how intently he was staring at the girls passing by, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume his head was filled with obscene thoughts.

“So what have you two been up to lately?”

Those thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a male voice.

“Oh, you know, stuff. You know, hanging out with Misaka and Shirai, taking classes, and flipping Uiharu’s skirt.”

_That’s better…_

“Saten! Does he really have to know about that!?”

_Wait, this tough guy has two girls!?_

“Huh? Why not?”

“I can’t believe you!”

Blushing, Touma Kamijou places a hand on the back of his head and lets out a nervous laugh.

“I think she’s right. You shouldn’t be telling me stuff like that, especially in public.”

“Thank you!”

“Ah, you’re right. Sorry Touma.”

“What about me!?”

“Besides, you rather want to know more about what Misaka wears, right?”

_A third!?_

“Huh? Doesn’t she only wear a Tokiwadai school uniform?”

“So cute!”

Clutching his head with both hands, Damian is on the verge of smashing his head against the well-polished table.

“Sorry for the wait, sir. Here’s your order. Enjoy!”

Hearing the angelic voice of the waitress, Damian tilts his head up and gives a warm smile while talking in a sing-song voice.

“Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

The waitress’s face starts to turn a bright red, placing her arm across her chest nervously as she starts feeling a warm feeling inside her chest.

“Y-yes… Please come again soon…”

As the waitress walks away, Damian reaches for the large wine glass filled with chocolate caramel ice cream.

As his fingers wrap around the neck of the glass, the ice cream suddenly melts. The redhead boy swirls the melted chocolate in the glass like wine and quickly chugs it down in one go.

Slamming the glass back down onto the table, he stares at the glass with a disappointed look on his face.

“Marvelous…”

“Well, I should go grocery shopping before I forget.”

“You’re leaving already?”

“Yeah. Let’s just say that I have a cat that gets very angry when I don’t feed her enough.”

“How cute!”

“It was nice meeting you.”

“Yeah, it was Uiharu, right?”

“Mhm!”

Watching the scene between what seemed to be close friends unfold, Damian reaches for his pocket and pulls out his touchscreen cellphone.

As Touma Kamijou is about to walk pass his table, Damian “accidently” drops his phone near Touma, causing the spikey haired boy to unintentionally kick it.

“Ah! Sorry, I didn’t mean to kick your phone!”

“Hey, don’t worry about it.”

_He doesn’t look all that powerful at all._

While Touma lowers himself to pick up the phone, Damian observes the high school student and fails to find anything interesting about the boy. Touma Kamijou from top to bottom is nothing but a regular high school student.

He doesn’t seem to be the kind of guy that would be attractive to any kind of girl.

“Here’s the phone. I’m really, really sorry.”

“Hey, like I said, don’t worry abou—“

Damian reached for the phone Touma was handing back and instantly froze the moment their hands brushed against eachother.

The tips of his fingers made contact with Touma’s right hand.

“Hey, are you alright?”

“W-what? Oh, uh, yeah, yeah. I’m good.”

Touma smiled in relief and apologized once again, finally heading out of the homey café store.

After hearing the door bells sing the spikey hair boy farewell, Damian stared at the phone sitting in his hand that touched Touma’s right hand.

_Why… do I feel so cold?_

**Part 26**

Touma Kamijou stepped out of the restaurant and looked up towards the sky.

He watched the three-bladed wind turbines rotate as they start to behave erratically and pick up speed.

Touma started thinking of only one reason why the wind turbines were acting the way they are now and started running to find the source.

As the boy ran a few blocks away from the café, he noticed the backs of two girls of different heights. One girl was very short and wore long white robes that looked very familiar. The other being slightly shorter than Touma and with long brown hair.

As he ran up closer, the shorter girl turned around and immediately smiled enthusiastically.

“Touma!”

“Index!”

Touma couldn’t believe to see Index walking around this area of the city, and walking at the same direction as he was. He wondered if he accidently missed Index walk pass the restaurant.

“What are you doing here, Index?”

“You took too long to come back and I was really hungry! So, I came out to look for you to make sure you weren’t holding out on me. But it’s okay! Masami fed me and now I don’t feel like I’m about to die!”

“Ah, is that so? That’s a relief.”

Sighing in relief, Touma starts to breathe heavily from the running he was doing just then.

Despite being exhausted, he managed to let out a smile of gratitude towards the girl he never met before.

“Thank you for taking care of Index. I know that she’s quite a handful, so I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

Index pouts angrily as she questions Touma’s choice of words.

Masami lets out a small giggle as she watches the comedic duo in front of her.

“It’s totally fine. I’m happy that I could be of some help. Here.”

Touma blanked out in the middle of his quarrel with Index. Then, he inhaled and exhaled a large amount of oxygen.

“Wow, I don’t feel exhausted all of sudden! It feels like my lungs grew ten times their size!”

The long brunette hair girl smiled and stepped in front of Index. She leaned in close enough to Touma to make him blush and step back.

“My name is Masami Tsukikawa. You’re Touma, correct?”

Masami steps closer and closer, causing Touma to step back further until feeling the cold metal of a street light on his back.

“Y-yeah, that’s right. Touma Kamijou. You’re dangerously close, you know?”

Touma held up his right hand hoping to create some distance between him and Masami. He didn’t have any desire to cause some kind of obscene accident, but the fact that a warm glow radiated from this young girl was making things all too difficult.

Touma thought this was some kind of special ESper ability.

Actually, it was probably because Masami is a girl.

Index continued to watch and had a very menacing look on her face.

“Touma…”

“Hey, don’t look so scary, Index! I’m not trying to do anything!”

Masami took hold of Touma’s hand and pushed it out of the way.

“Index became my very first friend since I started exploring Academy City. I don’t mind making you my second! You’re pretty cute, so you can even be my very “special” friend! You know what I’m saying? You can… you can… be… my…”

The excited Misami quickly turned dull and lifeless. Her blue eyes became empty and saliva starts escaping for her lips.

“Touma! What happened to Masami!?”

“I don’t know! It must have something to do with Imagine Breaker! Masami, let go!”

Touma tried to pull away from Masami but her hands were holding onto him tightly. Index wrapped her arms around Masami’s waist and pulled as hard as she could until Touma’s hand was finally released.

Index fell back causing Masami’s body to land on top of her.

“Kuh!”

“W-what… what happened…?”

“G-get off of me…!”

Wondering why the ground felt very soft against her bottom, she quickly stood up realizing Index was about to die from lack of oxygen.

She quickly bowed and apologized to the small nun and turned back to Touma.

“Your… your hand…”

“Yeah, sorry about that. It’s pretty strange, but it’s called the Imagine Breaker. It can cancel out any supernatural powers. The rest of my body is completely normal, though. What I don’t understand is why you reacted the way you did when you held my hand. Hey, wait, Masami! Don’t!”

After hearing Touma’s explanation, Masami immediately reached out to grab Touma’s right hand again.

Masami was now in her own little world.

The smell of fresh grass after a spring rain invaded Masami’s nostrils. Roses and Hibiscuses blossomed and completely surrounded her in every direction. From behind, the sound of waves crashed against the wooden dock that suddenly appeared under her feet. Larges bubbles started to fall from the sky containing oversized sweets. One particular bubble slowly floated down in front of her containing a cute puppy. The bubble popped and Masami quickly caught the puppy as it fell and held it between the sizable mounds on her chest.

Masami was in pure bliss and didn’t want this feeling to end.

“TOOUUMAAAAA…!!!”

The lifelike dream of pure happiness ended for Masami after hearing noises of pain and agony.

“Ah! Stop Index! Ahh it hurts! It hurts! I wasn’t doing anything! Ahh my bad luck!!”

Confused, Masami looked down to where the puppy once was and realized she was holding Touma’s hand against her chest.

“Is there a problem?”

“Yes there definitely is a problem!!”

Touma continued to struggle as Index bit his head while Masami continued to watch the funny actions between them.

Masami didn’t really see any problem with having Touma’s hand on her chest. She thought of the situation as completely natural.

Thinking the situation through some more, she removed Touma’s hand from her chest and placed it on top of her head like a hat.

“There, how about this?”

Touma and Index looked at Masami and thought about her weird action.

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with that, I guess.”

“Good! Oh, but you have to promise me to never let go of my head, okay?”

Touma was wondering why Masami was asking a weird question like that, but thought of it as a cute and innocent act so he didn’t question it further.

“Index and I were going to explore this district some more. This place sure has a lot of stuff going on!”

“Well, actually, I was about to—“

“Marvelous! Let’s go!”

Ignoring Touma’s plea, Masami pulled Touma with her while keeping his hand on her head.

Index continued hanging onto Kamijou’s head with her teeth still sunk into his skull.

**Part 27**

Two ESpers were facing off on a certain iron bridge located in District 7.

One of the ESpers was the #3 Level 5 of Academy City; Mikoto Misaka, the Railgun.

The other was a mysterious boy with a blue button summer shirt Mikoto met earlier that day.

Normally, two ESpers of extraordinary power would result in a catastrophic battle in the eyes of a spectator.

While that may be true to a certain extent, this was not a normal duel between two ESpers. At least, if it’s even considered one.

Mikoto Misaka stands unable to breathe, her mind blown from witnessing her most powerful ability, the Railgun, to cause absolutely no effect on the boy in front of her.

Meanwhile, the boy inspects the glowing cylinder of ice in his hands with much interest. The very same light that came from Mikoto’s most powerful attack, the Railgun.

“This light of yours is pretty impressive. It still hasn’t calmed down after being frozen in my ice.”

The boy in blue continued observing the object in his hand as he walks towards the edge of the iron bridge and rests his arm on top of the railing.

He takes a deep breath as the cold autumn wind blows against his face.

Mikoto watches him carefully, still in utter shock of what she had just seen moments before.

Seeing the boy losing interest in actually fighting her, the pride of Academy City’s Level 5 starts to dwindle.

As the #3 Level 5 of Academy City, that makes Misaka the third most powerful ESper in the city. Mikoto never had a confrontation with a lower level ESper that gave her much difficulty. She usually came out the winner with ease. An ESper like her should never lose to anyone who isn’t on the same level.

She cringed when she reminded herself of a certain boy who became the only exception to that rule.

However, this feeling was completely different from her fights with that certain boy.

This feeling reminded her of that time she was utterly defeated by an ESper who was clearly stronger than her.

A white hair boy who was the top dog of Academy City.

Fear of coming death filled Mikoto’s mind, but at the same time she wondered why that moment would never come. Death was toying with her emotions; that fear of death always being replaced by relief. An emotional roller coaster ride as she watched the mysterious boy with the Railgun’s light in his hand.

She carefully stepped closer to the boy, but immediately froze when the boy’s eyes turned directly to her.

“So, kid, who exactly are you?”

Hearing that question coming from him broke something in her heart.

Her pride was now hanging on a thread as the Level 5 Electromaster, especially when she doesn’t even know a single thing about the boy who just completely stopped her most powerful attack.

The boy sighs knowing the only response he’ll get is that same stare and returns to observing the orange light.

Mikoto bites her lips and swallows the excess saliva in her mouth.

“I should be asking you that! Who are you? How come I’ve never seen you before? Why were you with my sisters!? I’m one of the seven Level 5 ESpers in Academy City which makes me one of the strongest, and yet here you are! You won’t even take me seriously when I’m trying to fight you! Are you…”

Mikoto clenches her fists and swallows her pride once more.

“Are you also a Level 5? I haven’t heard anything about a newly inducted Level 5, but that’s something I can at least accept than a random thug who happens to be powerful because he’s in a shounen manga!”

The boy laughs at the assumptions that Mikoto was accusing him for being.

“You read those comic books?”

“Shut up! Answer me!”

Mikoto stomps the ground, flustered from the sudden tease.

The boy looks out towards the city, taking a deep breath, smiling at the fact that the hot-tempered girl finally decided to talk.

“Level 5, huh?”

Mikoto looks confused at the boy’s response. He silently stares at the city for a little longer, then finally looks back at Mikoto.

“Academy City ranks ESpers by Level, do they? Heh, sure, I’m for it. From now on, I’m a Level 5. Just like you.”

That was not a response Mikoto was hoping for.

Mikoto was shaking, clenching her fists so hard that her finger tips might bury themselves in the palm of her hands.

Taking a glance of the girl from the corner of his eye, the boy decides to push it even further.

“So, are you, like, a human bug zapper or something?”

“Damn you!! Who are the hell are you!?”

Those words triggered Mikoto’s emotions.

Sparks of electricity started discharging from Mikoto’s body. The electricity started bouncing erratically all over the metal of the iron bridge.

The boy retreated his arm from the railing to avoid being electrocuted.

Mikoto’s hair started to dance when a spear-like jolt of blue electricity shot out of them.

The boy manages to jump out of the way, but the hand holding the ice container remained in place.

“Oh, no~”

The boy said in a carefree manner as his forearm gets hit by the spear of lightning.

Feeling of his arm instantly went away, causing his hand to loosen and let go of the container of the Railgun’s light into the water below.

After a short delay, a loud explosion from below shocked the ears of both ESpers as they both lost balanced from the iron bridge shaking from the amount of force.

The loud roar of the explosion was followed by a humongous wave suddenly towering 200 meters over the bridge.

Mikoto trembles as she watches the large wave start crashing down on top of them.

Something grabs her arm and pulls her forward. When she realizes where she’s at, she finds herself pressed against the body of the boy in blue with his only working arm wrapped around her shoulders.

She closes her eyes awaiting the water from above to pulverize both ESpers.

The sound of roaring water falling from the sky occupied Mikoto’s ears until a soothing voice calmed her down for a split second.

She looked up at the boy, confused to see a smile on his face during this situation.

Above the boy is the wave just seconds until it’s about to crash on top of them.

Accepting her fate, Mikoto grabs the boy’s shirt and tugs on it tightly.

Then, as she watches her life pass by before her eyes, the large body of water instantly breaks into solid shards, like a large piece of glass shattering into pieces.

The giant wave was replaced by a rain of white shards that crashed around the two ESpers, seemingly as if the shards were trying to avoid contact with them.

After a long minute, there is nothing left but calm. The cold breeze brushed against the girl’s exposed skin. She looks around and sees debris made of ice covering the surface of the bridge.

Not being able to believe what she saw, she turns her head back to the boy.

She felt a heavy blow on the side of her face. The impact causing her body to fly back and bounce a few times on the now-icey pavement.

Rubbing the area where she was hit, she looked up and saw the boy walking up to her while holding his limp arm.

“How about we consider it even? I don’t have a grudge against you. I just want to—ah!!”

The boy was interrupted by a sudden pain in his shoulder.

Mikoto, shocked by the sudden action, looks to see the cause of pain and notices a dart that looks strikingly familiar.

More grunts came from the boy as darts start appearing on his sides and legs.

“One step closer to Sissy and I’ll put one in your head!”

That voice could only come from one person.

Mikoto turned around and was astonished at what she saw.

“Kuroko!”

“The one and only!”

Kuroko Shirai, a Level 4 Teleporter and Mikoto Misaka’s right hand girl, appeared before her.

Kuroko looked over the damage she has done to the boy and let out a snicker.

She looked at Mikoto who was still down on the ground.

“I’m sorry for being so late, Sissy.”

“Kuroko! What happened to you?”

“Let’s just say that the interrogators forgot what they were trying to get out of me! Well, actually, I don’t remember what they wanted as well… Oh, I also couldn’t find the rest of my uniform.”

Kuroko Shirai was without the standard Tokiwadai winter wear that they give out to students who attend during this season.

She was simply wearing her white buttoned collar shirt and blue skirt. In both her hands were the same white darts lodged in the boy’s body.

“This is Judgement. I suggest you give yourself up.”

Kuroko demanded with authority.

Kuroko Shirai was a member of Judgement, a disciplinary organization composed of students, both ESpers and non-ESpers.

Even without the Judgement emblem she normally wears on her arm, she continues to take responsibility of her job as a Judgement officer.

The boy is down on his knees, unable to move due to the pain.

Hearing the footsteps of the pink hair girl, he sighs.

“Alright, you win.”

“Good. Now, come with me.”

“Wait! Kuroko, don’t!”

There was no way the boy who appeared to be so powerful could give up so easily, and Mikoto knew this.

As Kuroko placed her hand on the boy’s shoulder, the boy’s body instantly shattered into smaller pieces of ice.

Kuroko rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t mistaken.

“No way…!”

**Part 28**

“Your room is pretty swanky.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah! I mean, it’s not big or anything, but you seem to live comfortably. That’s all that matters, right?”

Both of Touma Kamijou’s hands were occupied. His left hand is carrying a large amount of groceries, while his right hand is implanted on top of Masami’s head.

“What about where you live?”

“Where I live? Hmm… Well, I don’t actually have a place to call my own.”

“You’re homeless!?”

“What? No, no! I have a place to sleep, really I do! H-hurry up, I want to check this out!”

Having no choice but to follow her, Touma was forcefully dragged towards a large building that looks to be of a middle school.

“Tokiwadai? What’s so special about this?”

“I’ve heard so much about this place! It’s an all-girls school filled with powerful ESpers! I’ve always wanted to go here when I was little.”

Touma glanced at Masami, wondering what made the school so special that made her stare in merriment.

“What school do you go to?”

“Um…”

Masami nervously looked away from Touma, biting her finger.”

“Well… I’m not in school anymore, but since I was a kid, I only took private classes.”

“Really? No school? You’re pretty lucky.”

“No, no! You don’t have to be sorry! I just—wait, what? You don’t like school?”

“Stay here, Sissy. I’ll go check if the Supervisor is still doing room inspection.”

“Sure…”

_Those voices…_

Touma heard a couple of female voices that sounded strikingly familiar.

Not knowing what’s going on, Masami held onto Touma’s hands tightly as he ran to find the source of those voices.

Masami’s whole body lifted from the ground and waved in the air like a flag as Touma sprinted as fast as he could.

“Uuwaaah~ What’s going oooon~?”

Turning the corner that led to the entrance of the middle school, Touma spotted a young girl leaning against the steel fencing.

She was abnormally shivering, more so than one is supposed to during this season.

“Mikoto?”

The young girl turned to face Touma.

“You…”

Touma quickly ran up to Mikoto, unintentionally pushing Masami aside without realizing.

Masami watched in amazement as Touma went up and held the shivering girl in his arms.

Mikoto was on the verge of tears. She made sure to hide her face by burying her forehead into Touma’s chest.

Touma tried to keep her warm by holding her tightly and rubbing his right hand against her back.

Feeling his hand caress her back, the cold feeling slowly went away as she embraced the boy’s body.

To Masami, this scene resembled the act of comfort between two amorous lovers.

She wonders if they even know what they were doing.

Masami mumbles under her breath.

“This is fucking stupid…”


	7. Gekota on ice

**Part 29**

Masami watches on as the intimate couple lose their self-control to their primal instincts and engage in the forbidden acts of lust.

At least, that's what Masami is wishing for right now.

_Geez... They've been at this for about five minutes now._

Touma Kamijou was holding Mikoto Misaka within his arms.

When he found her, Mikoto was leaning against the steel fencing in front of Tokiwadai Middle School. She was in the verge of tears and was shivering uncontrollably.

As he held her, her cold skin slowly warmed up and her body started to relax. Touma ran his right hand up her back and caressed the back of her head.

"It's okay, Mikoto. Relax, I'm here. What happened to you?"

"Well..."

_Ugh! This is boring!_

Masami's blue eyes turned purple and glistened as she stared directly at the short hair girl.

_Mikoto Misaka. Two years younger than me. Reckless, hot-tempered, and incredibly fucking cute. Totally has feelings for Touma. Wears shorts under her skirt and childish underwear. Take note of that. So-called "Ace of Tokiwadai", huh? Possesses some powerful electric-type abilities, as well. The third rank... Level 5? What's that? Wait... oh, she likes these?_

Once Masami finished examining Mikoto, her eyes went back to their blue state. She walked up to the enamoured students and pulled out a strap from her pocket.

"Hey, cutie~ Are you interested in this thing?"

She waved the strap with a cartoon frog that was wearing a Hawaiian skirt while playing a ukelele.

Mikoto wiped her tears and her face quickly brightened, a dramatic change from her sorrowful look just seconds ago.

"Ge... Ge... Gekotaaaa~!!!"

Anything that has some resemblance to the popular frog mascot will set Mikoto off.

In a blink of an eye, the overexcited Electromaster dashed towards Masami to take an even closer look. She was so fast it almost appeared as if she teleported, catching Touma and her off guard.

"It's the ultra-rare Gekota-on-Vacation strap! There's only a one in ten thousand chance to find one in the Season 9-13 'Happy Gekota Fun Park' DVD box collection!"

Mikoto's eyes were filled with stars and sparkles.

"She's... so... adorable! Hey, Touma! Can I keep her?"

"No."

Masami sticks her tongue out in retaliation to Touma's quick response.

She wraps her arm around Mikoto's waist and pulls the Railgun's body to her while hanging the strap over their heads. Mikoto doesn't react, still staring at full attention to the frog above her.

"Look! Gekota is swinging! Swing, Gekota, swing!"

_Wow, she's totally into it!_

Mikoto's mind is completely gone from the real world.

"Masami, I really think you should stop that! She might have a mental overload or something!"

"Sorry I'm late, Sissy! I had to distract the Dorm Supervisor, but everything is in order. You can come-- what are you doing here, you troglodyte!?"

"Oh, ah, hey Shirai..."

Kuroko Shirai appeared out of thin air right next to Touma. As a teleporter, she was able to enter and leave the Tokiwadai campus without being detected.

"Don't 'hey' me! Sissy, don't tell me you were with this buffoon while I wa-- Sissy!?"

Kuroko noticed a new girl that she has never seen before who, in her eyes, was forcefully seducing Mikoto by luring her with a cheap cartoon frog.

Masami gave her a conceited smile, showing off her won trophy.

"Oh, does she belong to you?"

**Part 30**

Under the night sky, Masami treks along through the empty streets of District 7.

_That girl was absolutely cute! Ahh I just want to eat her!_

With her heart fluttering, Masami skips along while singing to herself until she hears an intimidating voice coming from one of the dark alleyways.

"Should a girl like you really be out here at night?"

Masami stops in her tracks and turns towards the open alleyway. A dozen of large thugs slowly came out of the shadows attempting their manly and intimidating poses.

"Maybe this bitch is lookin' for some action tonight, right boys?"

Cheers and whistles came from the rest of the lowly group of people.

"You must be new here. Let's go boys! Let's show this bitch why women love Academy City!"

Masami still hasn't reacted to the life threatening situation that she is in. Instead, she stares at the incoming thugs wondering who they were.

_Some action, huh?_

Masami's eyes begin to glow purple, causing the thugs to stop where they were at.

"Look out boys. She's one of those ESpers."

"Don't worry boss! She can't take all of us out! Once we get a hold of her, she won't be able to do anything but beg!"

An annoyed look appears on Masami's face.

"Only half of you are well endowed..."

"What!?"

Masami sighs, running her fingers through her hair, annoyed at the fact that they are making her explain.

"There's twelve of you, yet only six have what it takes to pleasure a girl. Just six. Boring."

"Why, this bitch!!"

One of the angry thugs came up running to Masami with a pipe in his hand. Just when he was about to swing his weapon, he struck an electrical field around her causing him to fly back to the shadows of the alleyway.

All the thugs step back away from the brunette. Fear was running through all their heads after witnessing one of their own unable to get close to her.

"Well, I guess I can't get mad at all of you. Just half. However, tonight's not the night. I'm pretty tired, I want to sleep, so I guess I'll take up on your offer next time."

With a grin across her face, Masami holds up her hand revealing a small silver coin with a star on it.

"See this?"

One of the thugs panicked, warning his fellow buddies about what's going to happen next.

"My name is Mikoto Misaka. Electromaster. The third ranking... ah... Level 5!"

An orange line of light shot out of Masami's hand aimed directly at the group of thugs.

The light trail misses and shoots straight into the alley way. There was enough light to brighten up the whole alleyway and that small section of the city.

Despite completely missing the thugs, the huge force from the beam lifted the thugs in the air and flew them backwards into the alleyway.

After the debris from the attack slowly dispersed, Masami stepped into the shadows of the alleyway. The light from her purple eyes illuminate the darkness. She continued walking until she found the bodies of the lowly thugs from earlier.

The amethyst socketed into the earring on her right ear starts to glimmer. At the same time, six bodies belonging to the group of thugs disappear in a blinding purple light.

One of the thugs who happen to still be awake witnessed half of his gang disappear. He panicked and screamed when Masami walked up to him.

"D-don't kill me! Please! Don't kill me!!!"

Masami snickered, kicking the thug between the legs as hard as she could. The thug screamed in agony as he coughed up blood.

"You're not even worth it."

The thug looked up to lay his eyes on the girl one last time before she instantly disappeared.

**Part 31**

Mikoto Misaka is hiding stealthily behind a large tree while taking a bite out of her crepe.

She was on the look out for a certain someone standing in line for the crepe stand in District 7, one of her usual hangout spots.

_There he is... what is he doing here?_

Mikoto was keeping a careful eye on a certain boy wearing blue. The boy was casually standing in line to order one of their special crepes, but Mikoto carefully observed for any suspicious activity.

As the boy came up next in line, he order one of their special crepes of the day: strawberry with lemon-lime creme, a very luxurious combination compared to the experimental flavours infesting Academy City, especially in soda machines.

Mikoto noticed the boy having a confused face as he received his crepe.

"I'm sorry, but we're all out. We only have enough to give away 100 Gekota straps per day."

_That's right. If I can't get one, then you can't._

Mikoto got to the crepe stand much earlier than the boy, and even she didn't come in time to be one of the first to get a new Gekota strap. She winced when she reminded herself that she didn't get one, but she reveled in the fact that the boy failed as well, as some sort of victory in her book.

"Oh, wait a minute! You're a lucky one, young man. I just found an extra laying right here!"

While the boy continued walking while eating his crepe, Mikoto looked on dumbfounded at the boy's incredible luck as she dropped her crepe on the ground.

_Gekota... you wouldn't... betray me... would you?_

* * *

_What is he up to?_

Mikoto followed the boy into a large shopping mall.

She hid within one of the aisles stocked with children toys as the boy went up to a wall that was showcasing an enormous collection of comic books and manga. Mikoto was also overwhelmed by the amount of items this mall had in stock. She sighed disappointingly when she did the calculations in her head and figured the mall was too far to walk to every day after class.

From where she's at, she noticed the covers of the books the boy picked up. One looked liked a mature action shounen, another seemed to be a romantic comedy, and one had a cover with small cartoon creatures all over it.

_He's been reading for a pretty long time..._

The boy had been standing there reading for almost an hour.

Right when Mikoto was about to fall asleep on the spot, the boy finally placed the book back on the rack and walked away satisfied.

Once the boy was far enough, Mikoto quickly ran up to the wall he was at and picked up the books he was reading.

_Huh!? The latest volume for Bizzaro Adventure with Koko, ESper Time, and Gekomon!? But these aren't supposed to come out until Christmas!_

Holding each book in her hands, she examined them to make sure they were actually real. She then looked back up at the wall and saw hundreds of comics and mangas that weren't supposed to be out yet. Her body started to shake violently from the suddenly revelation that hit her.

Heaven is real.

_You don't need lunch, Mikoto. You just need comic books. It will only take an hour here and back. No one will notice. Not even Kuroko. No matter what it takes._

Taking the time for herself, she flipped through the pages of one of the comics the boy read and noticed something odd.

_Huh? The pages are ridiculously hard to flip._

As she does with every comic book that she reads through, she bends the cover back behind the book and proceeds on reading until a loud voice caught her by surprise.

"HEY! DON'T DAMAGE THE MERCHANDISE, DUMB KID! THOSE ARE BRAND NEW!"

"Wah! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!!!"

* * *

Mikoto went back to her original plan and continued following the boy through the mall.

_Knowing that he's ahead of me on all my favourite series really hurts my heart for some reason._

Keeping her eyes on the target, Mikoto slides and slips past the large amount of incoming shoppers that seem to be endless. After a while of trying to avoid accidently pushing random people, Mikoto comes across a large section of shoppers that have completely separated her from the boy.

Scanning her environment, she finds herself in the middle of a crowd spectating a showcase of new Academy City technology. Words such as "virtual" and "reality" caught Mikoto's attention. Something about a device that lets you do anything you want in a world you make for yourself without any consequences in the real world.

This new device piqued her interest until she remembered what she was here for.

Taking a deep breath, Mikoto dash through the crowd while apologizing to everyone complaining about her rude behaviour.

Once she found herself free from the sea of shoppers, what grabbed her heart was a large pyramid made out of merchandise of a popular cartoon character.

"Ge...Gekotaaaa~!!!"

Boxes of toys, figurines, dvd box sets, clothes, accessories, and countless of other products based on the green mascot were stacked and organized in a way that made a large pyramid two or three times the height of Mikoto's.

After gazing upon the eighth Wonder of the World, what truly captivated Mikoto was a full-bodied figurine of Gekota standing in full glory.

Mikoto picked it up and examined the statuette of the cartoon frog. It wasn't too small like a miniature, or too large like a bust. It was only a little bit bigger than her hand. She started imagining this little frog standing on top of the desk in her dorm room greeting her every morning whenever she wakes up.

Of course, it was either that or Kuroko making fun of her.

While she contemplated, she noticed a stimulating aroma in the air. Following the scent, she circled around the Great Pyramid of Gekota and spotted the boy in blue getting assistance from a female employee who was too beautiful to be real.

There were large signs with foreign names above them that Mikoto didn't quite understand. There was also no end to the amount of glass bottles with colourful juices stacked on top of the nearby stand and on the surrounding shelves.

_Is that perfume?_

Seeing the boy walk away with a bag in his hand, Mikoto looks back and forth at the perfume stand and the Gekota in her hands. After thinking whether she'll have enough time or not to chase after the boy, she placed the frog statuette back on the pedestal where she found it.

_Wait for me, Gekota!_

Almost regretting her actions, she quickly ran towards the perfume stand.

Her nose was invaded by more and more scents the closer she got to the section. Some scents made her heart flutter while some made her dizzy and gave her a migraine.

A female employee noticed her looking around and tapped her shoulder.

"Excuse me, are you trying to find one for your boyfriend?"

"W-what!? B-boyfriend?"

The employee couldn't help but giggle at her nervous reaction.

"Mhm! These over here are some of our most popular fragrances for men. I figured you were trying to find a gift for someone you like?"

"N-no! That's not it! I was just... looking around."

"Aw, that's too bad. In the meantime, would you like to try out our products?"

"Umm, no thank you. I think I'm fi--"

A strong scent assaulted Mikoto's nostrils and her mind turned blank.

Mikoto Misaka opened her eyes and found herself sitting in a lone boat in the middle of an ocean. The cold breeze from the sea tickles her skin while the nuances of the warm sun hugs her whole body. As a strong wave comes by every minute, the boat rocks and splashes of water finds its way inside.  The scent of wetness on the wooden boat and the salty seawater intensifies, putting Mikoto further in a dreamlike state. Exotic citrus fruits bathing in the sea surround the boat, providing their share of sweet notes into Mikoto's nose.

"Ma'am, are you feeling alright?"

The female voice snaps Mikoto out of her trance. She shakes her head and finds herself in the middle of the mall, trying to remember what she was doing.

The employee giggles, poking the Railgun's cheek.

"That's so cute! I take it you never tried smelling fragrances before?"

"Not really..."

"A young man came by and was overjoyed to find out we still have these in stock. The popularity of lighter scents dwindle during the colder seasons. Most would prefer heavier scents this time of the year, but it looks like there's still women out there who still fall for this!"

Mikoto blushed once she figured out what the female employee was trying to say.

"Here, how about this? Try it, it's a sample."

The employee handed Mikoto a half-empty bottle with orange juice inside. She aims at one of her wrists and presses the head of the bottle down, feeling the spray tickle her skin. She brings her wrist up to her nose and examines the smell.

Her head was filled with scenes of walking through a forest during the peak of fall. There were different varieties of trees, each presenting their own unique fragrances mixing together to form a kind of smell like no other.

"It's called Wood of Wonders. It's one of our newer products."

Mikoto's face was flushed after experiencing this unique fragrance. She wondered if any place in the world would be able to reproduce the same smell.

_I wonder if he will like this..._

"Mawmmy! I wan it! Vuy it fo me, peas!"

A kid's voice broke Mikoto's train of thought. She turned around to see a giddy child holding a green frog in his hands.

"Okay dear. Careful, don't break it. We need to take it to the front for mommy to pay!"

"O'ay! Mawmmy!"

Witnessing the scene broke something inside of Mikoto. Her arms were shaking, gripping the small glass bottle in her hands tightly to the point that it might break.

_Gekota... why... why did you betray me...?_

"Wait, ma'am! Don't spray too much or you--!"

"Ah! My eyes!"

* * *

Broken, beaten, and smelling like a walking forest of magic, Mikoto strolled through District 7. She couldn't help but attract attention from passerbys noticing the unique smell, including other girls who seem to melt from the scent coming from the tomboy.

She continued ignoring them.

"I'm exhausted... I wasn't able to read any comics, Gekota cheated on me, my eyes hurt, and people are staring..."

She held her stomach as it started to rumble.

"That's right... I also never finished that crepe..."

Thinking it as the worst day of her life, she remembered one thing she got out of it that made her feel better. She opened her school bag and pulled out a small black box sealed airtight with plastic.

_If he likes this, it would make the whole day worth it!_

She headed towards a park. She figured she could take a break from all the walking around and possibly get something to eat.

As she walked by the large bushes surrounding the perimeter of the park, he noticed a table being occupied by a boy wearing a blue shirt.

_Leave me alone...!_

Ironic.

She crouched low enough to have her head below the top of the bushes. She peeked to make sure the boy wasn't looking at her direction. At a glance, she noticed a whole hotdog still wrapped in foil sitting on the table. The thought of food made her stomach growl even more.

_Shit!_

"Electric-type ability users sure have wonky heat signatures."

"!!"

**Part 32**

Mikoto sat across the boy while hiding behind her school bag. She took small peeks over her bag to make sure he wasn't looking or doing something suspicious.

Of course, the boy couldn't help but continue staring at the nervous girl, partly amazed. With his elbow on the table, he rested his head on his knuckles. He was for sure that this girl was gonna stay like this for the rest of her life if he didn't do something about it.

"You're cute."

Mikoto quickly ducked her head behind her bag from the sudden compliment.

"Just kidding."

"What!?"

She accidently knocked her bag down, looking at the boy in anger.

"Oh, you're cute again."

Blushing, she clenched her fist and bit her teeth. Taking a deep breath, she started interrogating the boy.

"What do you want with me, okay? Are you trying to get revenge?  You want to fight? If you do, then I'm ready! We can settle it and fight right now! And if you're trying to find out where Kuroko is, forget it! I will kill you before you lay your hands on her! You got that? I will--"

Her stomach started to growl during her intimidating speech.

She immediately sat down and held her stomach, leaning over to hide her face.

Hearing the sound of paper scraping against wood, she looked up to find a hotdog wrapped in foil in front of her face.

She looked at the boy who was looking away, looking uninterested.

"...What's this?"

"You dropped your crepe earlier today, didn't you? I bought it because I figured you'd be hungry from following me around."

Mikoto was shocked to find out that the boy knew she was following him the whole time.

"Like I said, I can sense your body heat. Yours is pretty erratic so it was obvious. I guess it's 'cause you're an electric user."

"'Electromaster'."

"Sure."

Mikoto bit her tongue from the boy's ignorant response. She ignored it, unwrapping the hotdog from the table and taking a bite out of it. She was caught off guard when she noticed the boy looking back at her.

"W-what?"

"Just so you know, your clone sisters attacked me first."

Mikoto was confused at his sudden statement. She thought back to when he found the boy threatening one of the Misaka Sisters. He's probably lying, but if he's not, she thought she made a terrible mistake. Still, she didn't get the chance to ask any of the Sisters on their side of the story. There was still no reason to believe what the boy was saying.

However, it doesn't seem like he's trying to pick a fight right now. Looking back to when she followed him around, he was very well a normal person with his own life.

"Even if that's true... I can't just let anyone put a hand on my sisters, for any reason."

The boy looked at girl's face and smiled.

"That so? Fair enough."

Mikoto continued taking small bites from the hotdog. Despite finding the situation she's in to be perfectly safe, she couldn't find but feel uncomfortable from the boy's gaze constantly on her.

"Is there something on my face?"

"It really suits you."

"What does?"

Mikoto touched her face trying to find out what the boy was talking about.

"That scent. Really woodsy. It suits you. I think you overdid it, though."

"W-what? No, no! I didn't mean to put so much... Plus, it's for men. I was only testing it out."

The boy chuckled, trying to find out how one could accidently put so much perfume to make a scent so strong like the one radiating from Mikoto's body.

"It doesn't matter if it was designed for men. If they can make it work, women can wear it too. It suits your tomboyish side."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"Good. Although, it really clashes with those frogs you have there. When did you get a fourth?"

From Mikoto's school bag are four straps with cartoon frogs on them. One was a pink frog while the rest were the same green frog character.

"Oh, I got this one last night. Some girl gave it to me as a gift. I don't exactly remember her name, though. Ma... sa... Masaki?"

Probably confusing her name with someone else's, Mikoto shrugs and decides to give up on remembering for now.

"I'll remember it later. Besides, she probably hangs out with Touma a lot so I'll likely meet her again. Wait..."

_Another... girl!?_

Realizing the situation, she looks down and places her hand on her chest, measuring something in her head.

_Damnit! What is up with him!?_

The boy watches as she curses to herself.

"Is something the matter?"

"Everything is fine!"

Mikoto slams the table with her fist. Taking deep breaths, she slowly calms down. At this point, she's planning on taking revenge on that spiky hair boy when she finds him.

"Oh, thank you again, by the way."

"For what?"

"For the strap you gave me yesterday. I never got the chance to say thank you."

Mikoto holds the Chef Gekota from her school bag, twiddling it with her fingers.

"But you did thank me?"

"I know, but it was really kind of you. I didn't get one yesterday, so when you gave me yours, it made me really happy."

He continued staring at the girl's face. She was really sincere about what happened yesterday.

"I was late again today, so I wasn't able to get another Gekota."

"It's no problem, right?"

Mikoto looked up to see what he was talking about.

A Gekota wearing a chef's hat was hanging from the boy's finger.

"It's the same thing from yesterday, so you didn't miss anything."

Mikoto rejoiced, smiling in relief knowing that she didn't miss out on anything.

_Although, I wouldn't mind having more of the same._

After taking the last bite from the hotdog, she crumpled up the foil into a ball and tossed it in a nearby waste disposal.

"Thank you for the food."

"Anything."

"Huh?"

Mikoto expected a "you're welcome", "no problem", or at least an informal "uh huh". Maybe it was just his way of saying it, but lots of people would take him up on that offer.

"'Anything'?"

The boy scratched the back of his head, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

"I just thought that I owe you for what I did yesterday. Ya know, so you don't keep on hating me or whatever. That thing you said earlier about fighting was pretty serious."

"Oh, I, uh, I just thought you were up to something. I just wanted to protect myself."

Mikoto was feeling just as embarrassed about the whole thing.

"Well, if you mean it, I do... um..."

"Mawmmy! Look! Gekeka is fying!"

An invisible force stabs Mikoto in her heart.

The boy turns around to see what made her upset and sees a little kid playing around with a small statuette that resembled Gekota.

"Ah."

The boy sighs in boredom, but laughs seeing how depressed Mikoto is.

"Don't worry. Close your eyes."

Mikoto looks at the boy suspiciously. He flicks his finger at her forehead, knocking her back a bit. Annoyed, she complies and closes her eyes.

"I don't know what's the big deal..."

"Open your eyes now."

Mikoto opens her eyes. What she saw made her heart beat to the point it would leave her chest.

In front of her is an exact replica of the Gekota statuette she saw in the mall. It was unbelievable at how exact the size and dimensions it has compared to the original. The only difference is that it was not green, but crystallized ice.

Mikoto couldn't believe her eyes.

"No way..."

"Go on, it's yours."

The boy smiled wholeheartedly as he offered the ice frog to Mikoto.

Mikoto slowly reached for the frog. She half expected the frog to be a joke and would break the moment she touched it. She thought that this would all be a dream and she would wake up in her dormitory. Her face turned redder than before when she picked it up in her hands.

It was unbelievably smooth, like glass. It's as if a gifted craftsman created this masterpiece using a fabled tool from the gods in a manga that Mikoto read.

After what Gekota did to mess with her emotions earlier that day, Mikoto felt like she was on an endless roller coaster.

"Gekota...!"

Mikoto gave in to her feelings and hugged the ice figurine with all her heart.

"Aha~! Thank you~!"

"Anything. Don't worry, it's made out of compressed air molecules, so it won't melt."

The boy couldn't let his eyes off her. Mikoto was still occupied with her own Gekota figurine. It was like a child hugging their first ever plush toy their parents gave them for Christmas.

His smile, however, quickly turned to dread. Something about Mikoto's happiness triggered an unwanted memory from the boy's past.

"Listen, Mikoto..."

Before the boy could finish his sentence, a loud roar from a crowd across the street tuned out their conversation.

Mikoto finally snapped out of it and looked over to see what the commotion was all about.

"Oh, that's an arcade shop. I wonder what's getting people so excited?"

"Want to go check it out?"

Something inside Mikoto convinced her that this boy does deserve to be friends with her, and that she knew that she would be safe being around him.

She agreed, picking up her school bag while holding Gekota to her chest.

As the two crossed the street, Mikoto remembered something that she forgot to ask.

"Oh, that's right. You never told me your name."

The boy stopped in the middle of the crosswalk. Mikoto looked back at him.

"Is something wrong?"

What the boy saw was a very familiar face in the crowd.

"Fan-fucking-tastic."


	8. Dying Loyalty

**Part 33**

_"Everything is in order, doc."_

_"Good. Proceed to the next step, as usual."_

_"Right."_

_"The little one has been restless since we brought her back."_

_"Could you give me a reason why a child wouldn't be restless over witnessing something like that?"_

_"I know, doc, but was going that far necessary?"_

_"Of course. Orders from the top. Eradicate those who interfere with the experiments. The experiments are not allowed to discover the outside world. Any interference outside of the project could affect their understanding and personality. This way, it is much cheaper and will likely produce faster results. Also, rewiring their brains takes too much time and effort."_

_"Heh, is that why you refused to do so the first time?"_

_"Doc! The system is malfunctioning!"_

_"She's getting agitated!"_

_"Status on the others."_

_"Perfectly normal. They are going through the usual simulations."_

_"Brainwaves are showing signs of-- Ahhhhh!!!"_

_"A scream!? Where is it coming from!?"_

_"Doc, up there! What's that white light!?"_

_"Ahh! Another one!! The screams are getting louder!!"_

_"A tear in space!?"_

_"Blood! Blood! There's blood!!"_

_"Wake up you bastard!!"_

_"I'm about to die! My head is going to explode!!"_

_"Doc! What are we going to do!? Doc! Doc!?"_

_"Shut it down..."_

_"Doc!? What was that!?"_

_"The room is being torn apart!? Where's the outside!? I see only white!!"_

_"Shut it down!!! Shut down her capsule!!!"_

_"What!? Doc, her brain won't be able to handle the shut down! She will die!!"_

_"Thisisn'trealthisisn'trealthisisnn'trealthisisn'trealthisisn'treal!!!"_

_"If she dies, the project will still continue!! Do you value those kids more than your own life!? Are you a fool!? SHUT IT DOWN!!!"_

_“This will be the second time…”_

**Part 34**

"Hey, are you even listening? Hello?"

Standing in front of the Tokiwadai Middle School gate entrance is Masami Tsukikawa. She was blankly staring into space for around an hour hoping to come across the school's ace, Mikoto Misaka.

"What are you even doing here? Hello? You there?"

Kuroko Shirai was about to set off for Judgement duty when she spotted Masami loitering in front of the entrance gate. Clearly, she didn't forget what happened last night and was seeking out an explanation.

"Look, I did not appreciate what you did last night. It was both humiliating and insulting. I am Sissy's right hand gal and I will not stand by and watch when an older woman who is unbelievably beautiful, has an unmatched sense of fashion, and plump mounds on her chest is trying to seduce MY Sissy, who is Academy City's third ranking Level 5 and is Tokiwadai's pride and Ace! Sure, she may have a childish personality and wears underwear to express that, but she is powerful and headstrong and at her age has the potential to exceed the capabilities of mature hussies like you! So you better watch out, fiend, because as long as I'm by Sissy's side, there is nothing in this word that can stop us!"

"..."

Masami blinks, finding herself back into the real world and notices Kuroko standing in front of her spilling out incomprehensible words.

"...Why are you poking my chest?"

"Nevermind that!"

Kuroko pulled her hand back from the brunette girl's chest and quickly turns around, showing her back to Masami.

"You really are something, you know?"

"Yeah, thank you," Masami said casually.

Irritated by her blunt response, Kuroko leans in closely to examine every inch of the mysterious girl. The texture of her hair, the complexion of her skin, her body figure, posture, the fabric of her clothes and the brand that made them. She even went as far as to lifting Masami's skirt to see what panties she was wearing.

Masami was wondering what Kuroko was trying to achieve.

"You know, you could have just asked. I'm pretty flexible."

"Shush. Wait a minute... you're wearing shorts!"

Kuroko was surprised to find another girl who liked wearing shorts under their skirt, especially one who looked like they should be in high school by now.

"Is that weird? I've always worn shorts. The skirt is new, though. I noticed Mikoto wore shorts under her skirt and I thought it was cute!"

"Ahh!!"

Kuroko tore the skirt from Masami's waist in anger and started tearing it into tiny pieces.

She was fine with the idea of another girl who was interested in wearing shorts under their skirts, but Mikoto being the origin of this trend was something she will not accept.

"Aww, that skirt was expensive... It's usually a guy who does that sort of thing, but I guess I don't mind another girl taking that spot."

Kuroko turned red from thinking about the ideas Masami kept spewing out. She couldn't believe how frank Masami was being and how she kept a straight face through it all.

"Enough, enough! A-anyway, let's get back on track. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm Masami Tsukikawa. I was just waiting for Mikoto to come out so we can hang out."

Kuroko kept looking at Masami suspiciously.

"Yeah, well, Sissy left a couple hours ago. She didn't tell me why, but all I know is that she's not in a good mood today."

"Did something happen?"

She wondered whether she could trust Masami or not. She thought of Masami as strange, but aside from testing her jealousy meter to its extent, Masami didn't seem to mean any harm. Mikoto was attacked by an unknown boy yesterday, and Kuroko didn't want anything else to happen to her. The safety of her senior was more important to her than her own life.

"Look, I can't stop you from being around my Sissy, but let me tell you one thing before I leave for Judgement duty."

"Sure, what is it?"

* * *

Masami was leaning against the entrance gate to Tokiwadai Middle School.

She held her hands on her chest and thought about what Kuroko told her. Kuroko’s words were constantly replaying in Masami’s head, and each time her heart seems to want to burst.

The words from Kuroko gave her a feeling that she never thought she would feel ever again for a long time.

Her eyes shone purple for only a brief second.

_Kuroko Shirai. Teleporter. Level… 4? Judgment. A student-based law enforcement organization. She was called in for a mission against a dangerous group of people._

“That’s all I could get, huh?”

She sighed in disappointment and rubbed the back of her head from a sudden painful sting.

_“Sissy means everything to me.”_

She shook her head and went off to find someone else to hang out with.

_How long will that last?_

**Part 35**

"Oh, come now, Aleister. No harm was done and you know that. No one else remembers any of your sock puppets, so there is no reason to get your tiny panties in a bunch."

"You know I can't allow that, Marie. As the General Superintendent, I just feel a sense of duty and responsibility whenever an unknown force causes trouble within my wonderful, fair city."

Aleister Crowley is having a playful conversation with someone not present in the same room with him. Instead, the female voice is coming from the glass tube that Aleister is floating in through telepathy.

"Yes, yes, I understand. As long as it pertains to one of your magnificent plans of creating a magical land of rapture that even the Almighty Father would find ridiculous and impossible, only you, Aleister Crowley, would sacrifice everything, in fact, reality, in order to achieve such a goal. Which is a shame, because even you can't create one that is not considered real, not even God."

"Marie, I believe your last point would be considered debatable in most circles."

As levelheaded as he always is, Aleister continued to play off Marie's constant mockery with sarcastic remarks of his own.

"I also do not require any of your hints. In any case, you have offended me with your rude accusations and now I must dry my tears by occupying my mind with something else. "

"Funny, but you know you require my assistance for your little problem. Tell me, how many research facilities have disappeared?"

"Oh, you know I don't keep track of such foolish statistics. Fifty two."

The sound of a loud thud and glass breaking can be heard through the glass tube.

"F-fifty two!? Is half your city a barren wasteland!? I-I mean, wow, Aleister. You sure let have things go out of hand quickly. Along with the researchers who were present in each one, you have a lot of missing socks. Those are always a problem in everyday life."

"It's very difficult accomplishing certain tasks when you're stuck in your own home all day. A pity."

During the past month, a large number of research facilities have disappeared from the face of the earth. It would be more accurate to say they are gone from existence, as if they never existed in the first place. No one remembers the events that happened within the past couple days: the last research facility to have gone missing, and the passenger plane that defied physics. No one but the General Superintendent, Aleister Crowley.

The windowless building that Aleister resides in has powerful safeguard features of its own. It is completely indestructible and unaffected by any and all outside forces and supernatural powers. Aleister has certainly taken every precaution to protecting himself. It is safe to say that even powers not within our world of understanding or reality are not able to create a measly dent on the windowless building. This is the reason why Aleister believes he is unaffected by any possible memory wiping abilities that may have been used to keep the civilians of Academy City unaware of what was happening around them.

With the amount of media circling around the last couple days, he wonders if those were purposely planned by the perpetrator as some kind of threat or warning.

However, Aleister already has an idea of who the culprit may be.

In fact, he was very excited about the big reveal, even if his face did not show it.

"I know exactly what you're thinking, Aleister. I like it. I really do. It's not going to work, but I like it. I will sit back and watch."

Marie interrupted Aleister's thoughts and let out a dispute as if she read his mind completely.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Marie. I just let these things go on their own."

A playful giggle and a slight sip from a drink is heard.

"I don’t care what the people of mainland Japan say. You Academy City people are so interesting."

**Part 36**

"Hey, um, Touma?"

"Yes, Masami?"

"Thanks again for buying me ice cream."

Touma Kamijou and Masami Tsukikawa were sitting in an outdoor patio in front of a small ice cream shop. There were only a couple of tables available and not many people were present so it was fairly quite and relaxing. With how closely they sat together, one would mistake them for a closely knitted couple.

"Don't mention it. Just one question. Do I have to keep my hand on your head while eating?"

Touma didn't have any trouble eating his ice cream cone with one hand, and he didn't have a problem letting Masami use his hand as a hat, but he found it awkward and a little strange having to keep his hand on Masami's head for long periods of time like an overprotective boyfriend. When he ran into Masami today, Masami immediately asked to place his right on his hand just like yesterday.

He thought back during the time when Masami passed out when she first held his right hand, the Imagine Breaker. He still didn't understand why, but he knew that the Imagine Breaker had an effect on Masami in some way, even if only at that time. Masami hasn't shown any reaction towards his right hand afterwards, but with how much of an addiction she has had over it, she is probably aware of the Imagine Breaker's capabilities.

In a way, Touma felt dejected at the idea of being used just for his Imagine Breaker as a stimulant.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"Well, no, but you always want me to hold your head whenever we're together. I don't mind too much, but..."

"You can hold my butt if you want," said Masami as she scoots closer.

"That's not where I was getting at."

Masami giggles playfully, taking more licks of her ice cream.

"I just find it comforting."

Touma looked down at Masami who was staring at her ice cream cone. Her voice became very timid as she spoke.

"I'm not sure how to explain it. Whenever I touch your hand, all the heavy pressure on my body just goes away. My mind is also clear from all the fuzziness and nightmarish thoughts."

He thought about what Masami was telling him.

Pressure? Nightmarish thoughts? What exactly is troubling this girl when he isn't there for her then?

"You called it Imagine Breaker? It really surprised me at first, but after getting used to it, the feeling I get really makes me happy."

Touma wasn't completely sure what to make of Masami's explanation, but he figured that if it continued to make her feel this way and prevented any more negative buildup inside of her, he shouldn't impede it. He didn't want to break this girl's smile.

He smiled and continued eating his ice cream.

The sound of screams followed by a loud screech came from a distance.

Touma looked over his shoulder to see what the outcries were about.

There he saw the side of a car that was rapidly growing in size.

Before his brain could register what was going on, the incoming car was already just meters away from the patio. Once the car hit the curb, the ongoing momentum caused the car to flip sideways and fly towards their table.

In one quick motion, as if by instinct, Touma grabbed Masami and threw his whole body towards the open street to avoid certain death. He held Masami in his arms as the boy dived through the air, making sure to land on his back, but was unable to stop from rolling across the ground forcing him to lose his hold on Masami who bounced further away.

The airborne car dove through the air as it spun like a missile, crashing through the outdoor patio and sliding towards the entrance of the ice cream shop. With the sound of crunching metal and pulverized cement, a large portion of the entrance have been demolished. The car was on its side sticking halfway out of the large hole that it created.

After the carnage came a few seconds of silence until a burst of flames shot out from the back seat. The car door instantly disintegrated. The flames started to spread and the whole front area of the building caught on fire.

Crawling out of the backseat was a lanky man. Large spikes of hair protruded from his head forming a Mohawk with silver rings on the base of each of them.

Every inch of his upper body was covered in tattoos presenting a random assortment of numbers and letters. From a glance, it would be very difficult to tell whether he was wearing a black shirt or nothing at all.

As he got out of the car, he stretched his arms and yawned, as if he was taking a nap throughout the whole crash and it didn’t faze him.

He scanned the area around him, impressed with the damage that was made.

“Nice. Looks like we crashed another party. I’m sure those higher ups don’t mind. They never do. What’s this?”

* * *

Masami was having difficulty standing up. She was sweating profusely while her breathing was heavy and erratic.

She cursed under her breath through her clenched teeth. Her face showed pure malice as she stared at the slender tattooed man.

He laughed at the amount of resentment coming from the brunette.

“What, another Academy City bitch trying to be a hero? We already took care of one puppet from Judgement.”

Judgement.

Masami knew only one person who was in Judgement. That person was called in for a mission earlier that day. She assumed the worst had happened.

Masami’s eyes shone with a bright purple brilliance. Her face that was once expressing malice soon turned cold and emotionless.

She held her hand up in front of her, measuring the man’s lanky figure between her thumb and index finger.

The grunt was interested in what he was watching.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but maybe you can make things a little bit more fun.”

He swung his arm across his body hurling a flame shaped of an arc that was a few meters long.

To Masami, the incoming attack was nothing but a leaf caught in the wind.

All she had to do was swat that fire away like a fly and then completely crush the low lifer to oblivion.

Before the flames could come close to Masami, it scattered to different directions and was extinguished completely.

However, Masami wasn’t sure what happened.

Before she realized it, the spikey hair boy slowly got up to his feet. He stood between the two Espers facing off.

“Touma...?”

Masami slowly walked towards the boy. She did not want Touma to put himself in harm’s way. When she took a step in front of him, Touma grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back behind him.

Masami did not understand what the boy was doing.

Touma looked back at her and smiled, reassuring her with a thumbs up.

“Don’t worry, Masami. I’ll take it from here.”

“The boy protecting the girl cliché, huh? Sure, that sounds good! I love a romantic tragedy!”

The grunt’s arm was now shrouded in flames. With a forward thrust of his arm, a whirling vortex extended from his arm and headed straight towards Touma.

As the vortex of flames approached, Masami buried her forehead against Touma’s back and tugged on his black winter jacket.

She wanted to at least pull him out of the way, just like how he did to her from the incoming car, but she couldn’t think clearly.

“Touma!!!” Masami cried out.

With a high pitch sound, the whole length of the flaming vortex shattered the moment it came in contact with Touma’s right hand.

“I told you what my Imagine Breaker does, right?”

Masami’s eyes widen as she heard the boy’s voice. She thought Touma would be burnt to a crisp. She looked up to see the back of the boy’s head.

Without leaving his eyes off the thug, Touma reached behind him and touched Masami’s arm with his right hand. Her tears dried as her eyes slowly returned back to their normal state.

“I will protect you, Masami.”

_“Sissy means everything to me.”_

“You don’t have to…”

Touma took a step forward.

“Stay with me…”

_“She is more important to me than my own life.”_

Masami tugged on Touma’s jacket, but it was futile as Touma kept walking.

_“I am willing to give up my own life if it means Sissy continues to live on peacefully!”_

“Why…?”

_“Because I love her.”_

Before Masami could stop him, Touma was already dashing towards the tattooed thug.

“W-what!? How can you do that!?”

In a panic, the thug swung his arm once more but the flames were easily doused when Touma’s right hand came into contact.

When Touma was in range, he clenched his fist and threw a punch towards the thug’s jaw with all his strength.

The thug’s body flew back and spun, landing into the broken wall behind him.

Masami stood and watched as Touma heroically took him down. She couldn’t believe Touma’s recklessness worked out very well. She sighed in relief as her heart calmed down.

As she watched on, Masami noticed the passenger seat slightly open from the inside.

“Touma, watch out!!!”

“What?”

“Right here, chump!”

Bursting out from the passenger seat was a large brute that towered over Touma. He held a steel pipe in his hand, and with a swing of his arm downward like a guillotine, he struck Touma on the side of his neck.

Touma’s body dropped like a log. There was a loud thud as his body hit the ground.

Masami felt like something was clogged in her throat.

_Not again…!_

There was not a single movement coming from Touma’s body after he hit the ground; not even a little twitch.

The giant brute climbed out of the car with ease. A noticeable feature other than his size was his hairstyle; spikes coming out of his forehead in a row, styled after the Statue of Liberty. Each spike had a silver ring on them, in the same vain as his slender partner.

The brute placed his foot on Touma’s back showing off his victory.

“Looks like your boyfriend here isn’t gonna get up for a long, long time.”

Masami watched as the brute started stomping on Touma’s spine.

With each stomp on his back, Masami couldn’t help but twitch.

Whether she was imagining it or not, the sounds of what seemed like bones being broken reached Masami’s ears. The disturbing noises were making it difficult for her to think clearly.

“Stop it! Stop it, please! Leave him alone!”

The brute continued stomping and kicking Touma’s lifeless body as he took pleasure in Masami’s weeping.

“I said stop it!!”

With all her strength, she forced herself to lunge forward towards the brute.

_SKREEEEEEEEEEEEE. SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE._

Masami fell and slid against the concrete towards Touma.

_SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE._

A deafening high tone pierced Masami’s ear drums. She covered her ears hoping the torture will stop before her ears start to bleed.

_SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE._

Excessive saliva was overflowing from Masami’s mouth and her pupils were dilating. She had reach the point of repeatedly punching herself in the head to hopefully end the suffering.

She managed to look up to see the brute towering over her as he scratched the steel pipe in his hands with his finger nails.

“ _Metal Sound._ Do you enjoy it? Is it music to your ears?”

The slender thug entered Masami’s vision. He pointed at Masami’s forehead while he fixed his dislocated jaw.

“This is the music you will be hearing as you fall into hell. Ahh!”

As Masami’s life flashed before her eyes, the piercing noise stopped and all she could hear were the screams of pain from the two thugs.

Masami looked over her shoulder and saw large black trucks coming.

She looked back at the two thugs and noticed the source of their pain. From their hands running up their arms to their shoulders are a large number of darts.

* * *

The two thugs were handcuffed against the flipped car. A number of Anti-Skill officers were occupied keeping a good watch on the captured thugs with their weapons armed and ready.

“Good work, Kuroko.”

“Thanks, Yomikawa… I just wish I called Anti-Skill sooner.”

Kuroko sounded disappointed as if she failed her mission.

“Hey, chin up. The doctor said that she’ll be 100% in tip top shape! When she comes out, she’ll be ready for Judgement duty.”

“Yes… please, give me a moment.”

Kuroko bowed to Yomikawa Aiho.

She walked up to the brunette girl who was on her knees with the head of a lifeless body on her lap.

She looked down at her in sorrow, wondering what was going on through this girl’s head. She felt that this all happened because of her.

“Is he… dead?”

“No.”

Kuroko wasn’t expecting such a quick and straightforward answer. It wasn’t even the answer she thought she was going to get.

“He’s not dead.”

She drooled as she spoke.

Masami could barely keep one of her eyes open. Her whole body started to tremble when she reached for Touma’s right hand. When she touched his hand, all the distressed on her face was gone. Her mind was clear and her body was acting normal.

However, tears were running down her face.

“He’s not going to die…” she said as she held Touma’s face in her hands.

Her eyes started to glow a purple brilliance.

Kuroko leaned in closer wondering what she was doing.

_No one deserves to die because of me._

“Hey, get down you punk!”

An Anti-Skill officer was having a quarrel with the slender thug.

“Fuck off you Academy City bitch! Espers will have their freedom!”

With a smirk, the slender thug spits out a wad of fire onto car’s gas door.

**Part 37**

“The Level 6 Shift was a success, don’t you agree, Edward? It has produced positive results.”

“…”

“The Imagine Breaker. Never in my life would I have predicted such a miracle to occur. It is a shame that science has been held back due to the very existence of this anomaly. Mankind will forever regret that day as a halt to evolution forever.”

“…”

“Ah, this must be the results of you playing with your toys, is that right? What’s this? Edward, don’t tell me you’ve been practicing alchemy again, have you? Your mother will not be pleased when she hears of this.”

“…”

“Relax, Edward, it was only a joke. Think about it. Your arm isn’t the only important thing in your life that has been taken away from you. Now, let’s see these papers. Oh my, yes, I am very proud of you, Edward. You have exceeded expectations as a waste of seminal fluids.”

“…”

“I shouldn’t be surprised. You Europeans are such remarkable folks. If your daughter were still with us today, she would be proud of her father. She would have definitely forgiven everything you have done to her.”

“…”

“How does it feel, Edward? What’s it like to almost reach the top of the staircase leading to heaven, only to be denied by God before your first step into paradise? This is what happens when you put your feelings in the way of advancing science. You are incapable of taking the human race forward.”

“…”

“I was once like you. I hope in the future you are given another chance to prove your worth. You have lost everything, but you can turn that around with loyalty and sacrifice. Your daughter’s sacrifice will not be in vain.”

“You won’t get away with this, Kihara.”

“Don’t worry, Edward. I will take good care of your children.”


	9. Human

**Part 38**

Moments ago a parking garage was set on fire by a couple of dangerous delinquents.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu leaned against a supporting pillar on the third floor of a parking garage checking his finger nails. Near him was an unconscious female middle school student with a Judgment band on her shoulder. Despite the flames and falling debris around him, he stretched and yawned in boredom.

“I thought I could kill two birds with one stone from this simple rescue mission, but it doesn’t seem like that bastard is going to come.”

Ready to give up on waiting, he placed his hand on the school girl’s forehead.

“This magic will last for a good number of minutes. I could keep waiting, but I don’t want to get caught in this fire for too long.”

Right when he was about to pick up the girl’s body, footsteps were heard coming from the ramp below. Tsuchimikado quickly hid behind the pillar that the body was laying against.

“So the birthday boy is here.”

* * *

The entire floor of the parking garage was enveloped in flames. The scorching fire caused the support of the building to melt. Sections of the ceilings started to collapse, and the floor would break through as the crimson flames would spew from underneath.

The intense heat from the flames made it too dangerous for a single living being to possibly get near parking garage. However, Damian continued to walk through the flames of hell. The heat did not matter to him.

The flames acknowledged his mere presence and made way as he stepped through.

He was here to find the cause of this fire.

Damian found a female middle school student unconscious on the third floor of the parking garage. Her body was laid against one of the few support pillars that have yet to collapse.

He quickly ran up to the unconscious girl. The flames retreated and formed a large circle around Damian and the girl.

To his surprise, the girl was in fairly good condition with only a few bruises on her body. Her breathing was also calm and steady which was unusual from the amount of smoke that contaminated the air.

Fire cracking and sizzling against concrete can be heard along with the explosive sounds of falling debris.

Damian was wondering when the whole building was going to collapse on top of him.

When he picked up the unconscious girl in his arms, he heard another sound coming from behind the pillar.

“Nicely done. As expected from you.”

It was a very complacent tone of voice.

Out from the behind the pillar was Tsuchimikado Motoharu wearing his usual Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses. He smirked as he observed the crimson Esper.

“Are you just going to stand there or are you going to save that poor girl?”

“Who the hell are you? Did you start this fire?”

“Questions? Stupid, stupid. You can’t get the girl if you’re putting her life in danger, you know~”

As he said those words the ceiling above Damian collapsed and was about to fall on top of him. However, he refused to react.

Before the large chunk of concrete was about to crush Damian, it combusted into flames and scattered into ashes.

Tsuchimikado couldn’t help but laugh at what he witnessed.

“Oh, of course! How could I underestimate the strength of a special little Esper like you?”

Damian was getting annoyed by the obvious sarcastic tone in his voice.

“I guess I can’t count on you dying here, huh? Our world is nothing but wet cardboard to you.”

He pulled out a gun from his pocket and aimed it at Damian’s head.

“But, you’ve made a big mistake.”

His sharp eyes peeked over his sunglasses. Even if it weren’t for the gun, that gaze sent shivers down Damian’s spine. Without taking his eyes off Tsuchimikado’s gun, he turned to his side to make sure the girl’s body wouldn’t be in the way if the gun was fired.

“You think that gun is going to help?”

“No, actually, I don’t.”

A loud bang sent shock waves throughout the building.

Before Damian could react, he felt a burning sensation on the back of his neck. He saw smoke coming out from the barrel of Tsuchimikado’s gun.

The bullet grazed Damian’s skin.

“Didn’t think I’d shoot? I should have actually tried to hit you right there. To be quite honest, I wasn’t the one who started this fire. The fire isn’t the most important thing right now, anyway.”

He walked up with his gun still targeted at Damian. The gun was held up inches away from his forehead.

“I know a lot about you already, but it seems you don’t know much about Academy City. A Level 4 Pyrokinesist would be pretty hardcore to think about walking through these flames and yet you did it as if the fire was your ally. In theory, a Level 5 would find it strenuous to burn even concrete. I’m impressed. You turned that rubble into nothing but ashes. All that and no harm done to the girl you’re carrying. You’re a ballsy mother fucker, aren’t you?”

“What…? Levels… like in an RPG?”

“Oh! How silly of me. I forgot that you’re not from around here. Think of it as… ‘Ranks’.”

A bolt of adrenaline shot through Damian’s body. Holding the unconscious body as tightly as he could, he immediately twisted his body. As he stepped away from Tsuchimikado, the floor underneath him disintegrated and gave way, allowing Damian to fall through. Tsuchimikado tried firing at Damian’s back, however, his gun was suddenly jammed. He glanced at the gun and noticed it melting in his hands, causing him to immediately drop it before the hot metal touched his skin.

The sudden heatwave coming from Damian’s body when he fell through smacked Tsuchimikado’s face, making him pause and block the coming heat with his arm.

Doing the same for both the first and second floors of the parking garage, Damian found himself in the parking lobby. The flames quickly spread out as if trying to avoid him.

He looked down at the body in his arms and felt sort of proud that he has kept her save from harm so far. He thought he may have accidentally burned the girl to a crisp just now.

He looked straight ahead and saw the light seeping in from the outside. Freedom was in his sights.

However, with his first step forward, his field of view was blocked by a wall of flames that seem to come out of no where. He was trapped inside a large ring of fire.

Not thinking much about it, he continued walking forward, but he felt a wave of heat hit his face causing him to step back.

The flames danced around him, mocking him in his bewildered state. This was the first time Damian has encountered a heat source that he was not able to control.

“Aw, is the fun over? I thought you were trained for this.”

That voice came from above.

Tsuchimikado dropped down from the floor above and landed behind Damian in a show-off way.

Damian tried to keep a safe distance, but the raging fire around him made it quite difficult. His shirt was starting to become drenched from the amount of sweat.

Tsuchimikado was sweating as well, but he seems to be faring much better against the flames in comparison.

A large grin grew across his face as he tried to hold in a laugh. He spreads his arms apart making himself vulnerable.

“Hey, do something. You’ve done nothing but stand around like a fucking idiot. You can’t be this much of a bitch.”

Damian wanted to move. His instincts told him to run through the fire, but this fire had properties that was completely obscure. His only option left was to stay and fight, but safety of the girl in his arms had priority.

He slowly laid the girl down on the ground behind him.

He stood back up and glared at Tsuchimikado. He clenched his fists and tightened the muscles in his legs. His brain told him to lunge forward and strike, however, he was unable to move body. A sharp pain runs across his whole body the more he struggles. As the temperature on his body rises from the heat coming out of his body, the noise of loud sizzling is heard.

His body was restrained by a series of wires. To add more to his surprise, the wires refused to melt and break like he thought they would. Thinking the wires would soon slice him to pieces if he kept struggling, he stopped and stared at the laughing blonde. For the first time, fear invaded his mind.

“Listen. I know you’ve only been here for a short while, so let me tell it to you straight. This is the real world. The people here have their own lives, goals, ideals. They are fully responsible for their own actions.”

Portions of the upper floor starting collapsing and fell around them. The ceiling above them broke through, but before the debris could crush them, it shattered into smaller pieces and exploded into different directions.

“And some people take that last one to heart.”

With his grin never leaving his face, he walked up and kicked Damian in the stomach, ignoring the massive heatwave that engulfed his leg in the process. Due to the wires restraining him, Damian was forced to keep standing.

“Those people can’t be controlled. Their actions are for their own reasons.”

A heavy punch hits Damian across the face.

Tsuchimikado grunted as his arm turned a violent red, but it immediately turned back to his normal skin colour. He couldn’t help but let out a painful cough as blood splat out of his mouth.

“No one is here to protect you. No one to watch over you. As long as you consume air and take up space in this world, you are on your own.”

He pulled his fist back, getting ready to land another punch on Damian who can barely keep his eyes open. However, just when he was about to pull the trigger, he fell to his knees. Tsuchimikado held his throat struggling to collect oxygen into his lungs. However, the attempt was fruitless and his lungs started to burn.

His whole body burned as if he was sitting right next to the sun.

At that moment, Tsuchimikado realized he didn’t just lose the ability to breathe. There was actually no oxygen in order for him to take.

“Sounds like my kind of place.”

As Tsuchimikado struggled to breathe, he forced his eyes to look up at Damian. What he saw got his mind completely off the fact that he was unable to breathe.

“I see. So, this is what they call magic?”

Plastered on Damian’s face was a wide menacing grin that reached each of his cheeks. His eyes were slowly turning to a redder colour while his pupils became a deep black.

He slowly stepped towards Tsuchimikado. The wires that were restraining his body started to burn and wither away.

Tsuchimikado’s body started to heat up from the inside. His blood was about to reach their boiling point.

The thought of fear soon left his mind as he looked up at Damian a bit longer. Feeling that he’s about to reach his limit, he once again gave a smile, satisfied at his situation and coming fate.

Annoyed by Tsuchimikado’s cheekiness, Damian lifted his foot and placed it over the blonde’s head.

A blinding, powerful light from the outside shot through the fire like a laser and struck Damian’s back. The powerful force of the light lifted Damian a couple inches in the air until the light dispersed.

Tsuchimikado rolled out of the way to avoid Damian falling on top of him. The heat from his body started to lessen and he found the ability to breathe again. He took this time to take in long and hard breaths.

A large number of wires extended throughout the area and waved around rapidly generating a huge force of wind that extinguished the fire of the parking garage.

Breathing heavily, whether due to trying to refill his lungs or relief of still being alive, Tsuchimikado laughed it off.

“Yeah. You’ll do fine.”

He walked towards the still unconscious girl and picked her up.

As he walked towards the outside, he stopped for a moment and looked back at Damian’s motionless body.

“Oh, and one more thing. I have a sister. Touch her, and I will kill you.”

**Part 39**

Touma’s cold body laid near-lifeless on the ground, his head resting on Masami’s lap. Masami caressed Touma’s face as tears welled from her violet shimmering eyes. Her tears glistened as they fell and spattered on Touma’s forehead.

“You didn’t have to do that. You didn’t have to protect me. You’re beaten up, all because of me…”

Her voice was trembling and her body was shaking.

She held on to Touma’s right hand, let go, and then hesitated, immediately grabbing his hand again. She couldn’t leave Touma’s hand for more than a few moments. If she did, her mind would continue slipping into darkness.

Kuroko held Masami’s shoulders from behind, trying to help keep her from sobbing uncontrollably.

“He needs to be taken to the hospital immediately, Masami. We can’t waste any more time standing around.”

_…Hospital?_

Masami clenched her teeth.

“Don’t you dare suggest that place,” Masami said, jerking her shoulder shoving Kuroko off from her.

“Don’t be stupid! If we don’t take him right now, he’s going to die! Ah!”

Kuroko was struck by an invisible force, knocking her back a couple meters away from Masami.

_I’ll save him myself. I’m not letting anyone else die because of me._

“Hey, get down you punk!”

One of the Anti-Skill officers was having a quarrel with the slender thug.

“Fuck off you Academy City bitch! Espers will have the freedom they deserve, and you can’t do shit about it!”

With a smirk, the thug spits out a wad of fire onto the car’s gas door.

It happened too quickly. Before anyone could react, the spit of fire burned through the gas door like paper.

In a flash, an explosive fireball completely engulfed the area and surrounding buildings. A blinding light soon followed along with a deafening roar that could be heard miles away.

The ice cream parlour was completed devastated along with the surrounding buildings. Anti-Skill officers and vehicles were blown away from the force of the explosion. Buildings on the other side of the street weren’t given any mercy.

No screams were heard. No there was no chance for screams. Only destruction, and soon after, ear-piercing ringing.

Then came nothing. Nothing but blackness. Cold and loneliness.

* * *

“Where… am… I?”

A nasally voice is heard from within the darkness of space.

“Am I… dead?”

That voice came from the slender thug that caused the explosion. He felt light-headed and groggy, as if his mind was completely outside of his body. It felt like he was floating in space. In a realm of nothingness.

“What… why… where is this? Am I alive? My body… is still intact. What the hell is happening? Is this heaven? Fucking hell?”

Despite the darkness, he was able to see his own body as if it was during the day. He patted his hands all over his body making sure it wasn’t his imagination.

He looked around and could see nothing but black. It was giving him a migraine not being able to tell the distance he can see when everything is so dark. There was nothing above or underneath him either, yet for some reason he could stand on what seemed like a surface.

Losing count on how many times he spun around, a large body appeared laying down on the “ground”.

“Rocky! Buddy boy!”

He ran up to motionless body, but as he got on his knees to check on the condition of his partner, the body suddenly dropped and continued to fall until it couldn’t be seen in the darkness.

He tried to reach for the body before it fell through, but space in which the body fell was replaced by an invisible surface once again.

“Aw, what a shame.”

He turned around to find where that voice came from.

There stood a brunette girl with purple eyes shining brightly. What seemed to be a floating pink tiara made of energy with an encrusted diamond middle stood out only a couple inches from her forehead.

What else was striking was her solid lifeless eyes and the smile that seemed fixed on her face.

“Who… who are you?”

“Masami Tsukikawa, at your service~ Welcome to my home.”

Despite the look on her face, her voice and posture were very lively.

“Aaand your name is Yayoi Kawano. Yeah, you totally look the part.” Masami said in a very condescending tone of voice.

“H-how did you… Shut up! It’s not fucking Yayoi! It’s Genesis!”

Masami bursted out laughing.

As she laughed, the invisible surface below their feet started waving violently like a suspended bridge in the wind. The thug was having difficulty keeping his balance, but it didn’t seem to affect Masami at all.

“Hold on, damnit! What’s so funny!?” He yelled while trying to keep his balance on his hands and knees.

“No, no, we’re just sticking to Yayoi, okay? Be proud of who you are.”

“You think I named myself that!? It’s not like my stupid parents cared what I was before I was even born. So, I’ve decided to make a name and life for myself! A name that would be put into legend as one of the heroes that helped build a world free of tyranny! Genesis!”

“Good on ya for havin’ a go.”

“Why you…”

Offended by her immediate dismissal of his driving motive, he swung his arm in front of him. However, nothing happened.

Confused, Yayoi kept swinging his arm and throwing punches hoping his flames would come out.

“Oh, I get it. Were you trying to do this?”

Masami raised her finger in front of her and waved it left and right. Multiple arcs made of flames that were meters long appeared and shot towards Yayoi followed by booming roars.

Yayoi froze as he watched his own ability used against him. The flaming arcs came rotating at different angles. Even if he were to dodge the first, or even the second, it would be impossible to evade all of them. The light of the raging flames blinded him as his life flashed before his eyes.

Only moments later was his vision back to normal and all he could see was Masami standing in front of him.

He felt his chest and noticed he was unharmed.

“You think I would make a mess in my home?” Masami giggled. “Well, I mean, if you’re in here, you’re already dead, so I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“So am I actually dead?”

“No, I want to kill you myself. Another time, perhaps. I just want to have fun.”

There was a lack of a threatening tone coming from Masami’s words. She talked as if she’s having a regular conversation between two friends.

“Is this because of that boy?”

Yayoi stepped back and tripped. He crawled away but kept his eyes on Masami. She stepped forward the helpless thug and he reactively raised his hand signaling her to stop.

“Wait! You can’t do this! You’re… you’re an Esper, aren’t you? You must know why we went this far to achieve our goal. To create a world where Espers can live free from the chains of Academy City.”

“Sounds like a personal problem.”

Masami continued walking towards him while he frantically crawls further away.

“Listen, listen! You’re pretty damn powerful I give you that, but don’t you see that’s what the higher ups want?

“I think it’s nice to want things.”

Despite not being in range, with a flick of her hand, Yayoi was sent flying back a great distance until hitting what seemed to be an invisible wall. He held his shoulder, wincing in pain. It must have been crushed from the impact. When he looked back up, Masami was already standing over him. With the speed of her walk and the initial distance between them, that should be impossible.

She kicked him without putting in much effort, sending him further than the kick should have if they were in the real world.

“Please… Listen…” he said as he coughed blood from his aching mouth.

Masami was once again all of a sudden standing over him. Her face hasn’t changed since the beginning. She was definitely having fun from his agony.

“This city was designed to produce powerful Espers like you, like us, for their own twisted experiments.”

Her smile vanished.

It completely changed the atmosphere. It was less macabre than when she was smiling, but an awful sense of dread overcame Yayoi. However, he took this opportunity to explain in hopes she will further listen.

“This whole city has been one giant experiment ever since it was first constructed. The lifestyles of its inhabitants are nothing but recorded statistics. And then there’s us. Espers. No, just mere lab rats.”

He forced himself up to his knees, but was unable to stand up straight.

“They make us take all sorts of tests and drugs just for the sake of altering our bodies and minds to achieve their purpose. They want us removed from reality and transformed into a vessel to create some sort of nirvana. Don’t you understand? THEY are the gods of this world. They are the ones behind the curtain while everyone is too stupid and ignorant to realize it. But not us, not the Free Skills. We’re Espers who have opened our eyes to the truth and want to seek justice and freedom for all of Academy City, and destruction for those monsters in the governing board. Don’t you see that all we want is peace? You must understand.”

“Yeah…” Masami said as she sulked, reflecting on his justification.

A hint of a smile appeared on her face. She was impressed by the thug’s resolve. His feelings were genuine, and his heart was pure. He believed his ideals and goals were right and would stop at nothing to achieve them.

Yayoi saw the look on her face and returned a smile, relieved at Masami’s approval.

“It’s hard to find help. When you cross this line, there will be no protection from anyone but your allies and friends in Free Skill. Together, in a tight knit, will be a force to be reckon with. Please, join us.”

He grunted as he scraped his feet across the surface towards Masami.

“Espers have always been slaves to those researchers. Some are taken away to secret facilities only to be forgotten by the outside world forever. Who knows how many are being torn and pasted back together as we speak. Who knows how many children are taken every day and are stuck inside a tube for majority of their life? Isn’t that just a nightmare? A living hell?”

He slowly raised his hand towards Masami. His strength was making it hard to hold his arm against gravity due to the pain in his crushed shoulder.

Masami stared at his hand for a moment. She smiled wholeheartedly and held his hand in hers.

“Yeah. Sucks when that happens.”

The second she finished her sentence, the amethyst gem on her tiara shimmered, and she found herself alone in the middle of the dark space.

She shook her hand around as if to remove any filth from it.

“A group of Espers are rebelling against the higher ups of Academy City. Huh. And I thought I was doing fine all by myself. Perhaps, I’ll be meeting more of them further along the road.”

**Part 40**

“Ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls! Welcome to Masami’s House of Dreams, or, uh, Masquerade of Imagination! Pandemonium! Purgatory! Phenomenal! Um… whatever. This is a show where all of Masami’s dreams and ambitions come true with only a single thought, and then crushed before her eyes because that’s just how life is! Isn’t that right? It’s cool, I promise. Pow! Hya! Boom! Tralala-lala~ In today’s episode, Masami reflects on the naughty things she has done that have resulted her to be stuck in this cold and dark world. Bad girl, bad! What will she do as she waits for the next century to pass? Not sure. Tea, sleep, dance, midnight talk shows, sex? Who knows? There’s one thing I do know: I am fucking bored!”

Masami walked around aimlessly as she pondered to herself. She held both her hands in front of her and a bright pink light appeared within her palms. The light split into multiples and danced around the empty space in her hands until it formed a shape of a small cup.

After a bright flash, it was replaced by a small glass tea cup decorated in flowers and beautiful gems.

She slowly poured the tea between her lips and savored the sweet taste.

She reveled in delight as she took her time drinking more tea than the tiny cup is even possible to contain.

After she was finally satisfied, she tossed the cup away until it vanished in a bright pink light. Her face completely flushed as she enjoyed the feeling of ecstasy.

Taking a deep breath, she went back to evaluate the situation.

“I guess I can do it in that order… Okay, okay, okay. Damnit, it’s going to take forever to rebuild. How long will it take me this time?”

She stretched her arms and fell backwards. However, she was caught in the middle of her fall. There was what seemed to be an invisible chair.

“Let’s see… the blast radius of that explosion was much smaller in comparison… Just five years? I guess… that’s not too bad.”

She sighed, sulking in her chair.

“This is just fucking marvelous! I know it’s only just a few minutes in the real world but it’s five or so years of my own valuable time.”

She sighed in surrender as she squeezed her cheeks and shook her head in a tantrum.

“Can’t believe I lost control of my powers. Again. Why didn’t I just take Touma with me and leave the mess to those Anti-Skill people? Most importantly, I can’t imagine the migraine I’ll get after restoring the damn thing. Reality sure sucks.”

She bit her lips, but a whimper managed to escape. A pink human-like hand appears over her head and gently pets her.

“This isn’t the same,” she said puffing her cheeks. She swatted the hand away as it faded away.

“Oh, oh no, no, no, no way! This was all his fault,” she said as she conjured a foldable fan to cool her anger off. “Touma… why would he try to be a hero? Does he always do that? One of these days he’s going to get himself ki—”

Masami couldn’t help but laugh as she thought about Touma’s fate.

She smiled to herself as she placed her hand over her beating heart.

“I abandoned these feelings a long time ago. Why do I even— w-what…?”

There was a sudden pounding inside Masami’s head. Each thump in her head felt like small explosions causing her body to jerk.

_Impossible! Why is this happening HERE?_

An indescribable noise reverberated throughout the area causing a violent tremor loud enough to completely overwhelm her thoughts. Masami covered her ears and fell to her knees. She couldn’t hear herself scream in agony over the vibrating noises. Her head felt like it was going to burst open if this kept going for any longer.

Ear-piercing sounds of glass breaking soon accompanied the vibrations. The endless dark space that surrounded Masami was then occupied by large white cracks, as if the darkness was breaking apart.

Through the cracks were alternating pitches of screeches.

Masami’s lungs and throat burned and ached as she tried to scream, but she was unable to make a sound.

She ran towards a random direction in an effort to run from the noise, but no matter which way she went, she was greeted with louder and louder screams.

The cracks grew until all that was left was white.

The noises stopped.

Masami was on her side resting and trying her best to hold onto the threads of life. Her heart was pounding at an abnormal rate and in her head was pulsating and still echoing the noises she had to endure.

Her face was drenched in her own tears.

A resounding vibration from behind made her whole body convulse.

She slowly turned to her back. Her eyes widen. She used the rest of her strength to push herself away from the source of the noise.

“W-what… the hell are you?”

Standing before her was a human-like shadow figure; a remnant of the dark.

For every slight movement it made, a loud vibrating noise was heard, but it didn’t come the human figure. The noise came from and vibrated throughout the endless white space.

A stinging pain ran through Masami’s body as she managed to stand up.

The amethyst gem near her forehead shimmered. Fear shot through her spine as she realized nothing happened.

The human figure stepped forward and the loud noises continued. Masami convulsed and stepped backwards. The gem started to glow brighter and brighter as it collected light. It released a beam of light at the human figure, but it was swatted away with ease.

_Does this thing have more power than me? In MY world?_

Circular waves appear in the air surrounding the figure. After a moment, chains came from the waves and wrapped around the figure multiple times restraining it.

With one swift movement of its hand, the chains broke like tissue paper. Free from its restraints, it continued walking towards Masami.

She held a silver coin in front of her. Blue electricity ran through her body and gathered around her hand. A bright orange light shot out from her hand and propelled the silver coin towards the figure at a speed faster than sound.

Faster than a human could react, the figure held its hand in front. The orange light struck its palm and split towards different directions before dissolving.

“KzjalHUBRISzkjkxiwVANITYpotikyhDISDAINqmnwkqlBASTIONzkzikz”

A voice sounding artificial and angelic resonated in Masami’s head. The words were blurred with only a few words Masami could grasp.

The figure continued to walk towards Masami while waving off all of her attempts of subduing it. Razor sharp blades of wind, walls of ice, ring of fire, destructive blasts of various elements. Every ability Masami could think of were overwhelm without showing any signs of slowing the silhouette down.

“PrevailoverSHIFTaldxpESPERadfjofanewKINDfpspl”

Masami started to lose the feeling in her legs and was having difficult in standing for much longer. If she twisted or broke her leg, she would be unable to feel it.

Her vision started to blur with an assortment of colours. A war was going on inside of her head.

She could only make out a dark outline slowly growing larger and larger until it was only a few steps away.

“DsotkMULTIdpzkjlzREBUILDtheFOUNDATIONapqkdPERSONALacinzREALITYpzjvlz”

_No! I never wanted this!_

The words were becoming clear.

Pictures of familiar faces flashed in front of her face invoking both happy and dreadful memories. Conflicting thoughts echoed in her head.

_If I was stronger I would change everything!_

Her face contorted as her memories replayed over and over again.

“I want to see bgsvjz! I promised zjwfzla with zkcvjdl! Stupid zxokter, wake her up! Wake her up!”

_Help me._

“Masami, I need you to step it up. Both instances of the Level 6 Shift has seriously put us in a financial crisis. I can’t have you _screwing_ around whenever you like. Damnit, this is just marvelous.”

_It hurts. It hurts._

“I’m not hurt. Just a little empty. I think that’s okay. I hate you. With all my heart and soul. Marvee.”

All noises ceased.

Her arms turned limp and fell as she sat dull and lifeless. A total shutdown of her body. She felt the touch of a human hand on her back prevent her from falling over. Her mouth was wide open and quivered as her face was smeared with her tears and saliva.

Her dilated eyes stared at the shadow figure, but its face was nearly indistinguishable. She looked at where its eyes would be. She managed to let out weak whimpers as it came closer, but some came out as gargle.

It held its hand near her face. The gem near her forehead responded with a growing bright violet light. As soon as its finger touched the bright amethyst gem, the tiara shined brighter than the sun and engulfed both it and Masami.

“As long as I live, I will always protect you. I will be your guiding light through this darkness.”

**Part 41**

_“Siiis! What’s that on your chest?”_

_“Hm? Oh, this? It’s the Tokiwadai emblem. I told you before, I go to Tokiwadai Middle School.”_

_“Middle… school?”_

_“Yeah. Don’t you have school, Masami?”_

_“What’s ‘school’?”_

_“What? How is that possible? Don’t you have someone to teach you, um, you know, stuff like Math and History?”_

_“Um… Oh, there are tall adults in white that teach me lots of stuff! Like, my Esper powers that I showed you!”_

_“Oh, so you’re home schooled, huh? Your parents must care for you a lot if they’re keeping you confined in your house all the time. Too much, in my opinion, but I guess that’s there way of showing how much they love you. I can’t stop that.”_

_“My parents… Sis! I want to go to middle school with you! I want you to teach me!”_

_“Whaaat? I’m not a teacher! And I’m not sure if Tokiwadai would accept so easily…”_

_“No! I want to be with sis! You can teach me everything!”_

_“I— um… Ah… Sure. When the time comes, you can attend Tokiwadai with me and I’ll be your personal teacher.”_

_“Yaaay! What are you going to teach me?”_

_“How about I teach you something right now? Promise me one thing, Masami. Your powers are a gift. They’re extraordinary and that makes you very special. Please, promise me that you will always treat your gift as a blessing, no matter how many times it may seem like a curse.”_

_“Ohhh… If sis says so, then I promise forever!”_

_“I’m glad. If you keep that promise, then I guarantee that you and I will be going to Tokiwadai together. And then maybe, you’ll grow stronger and become a Level 5 Esper. Just like me. Uh, hey, are you even listening?”_

_“Uwaaah~! Together with sis! It’s your turn to promise! If you don’t keep it, I will hate you forever! …Sis? I-I really mean it! I will hate you! …Why are you staring at me li— y-you… w-wha…?”_

_“I love you, Masami. Don’t worry, I promise. Oh, it’s getting late. I’ll see you next time, okay? And perhaps… I’ll teach you… something else? I promise, it’ll be extra fun~”_

* * *

“I… love…”

“What was that? Masami, you awake?”

“H-huh…? W-what… where…?”

Masami slowly opened her eyes to the sight of black spiky hair bouncing up and down. She realized that her whole body was bouncing in a similar rhythm.

“You passed out back there. You alright?”

It took her a moment to realize that she was riding on Touma’s back. She turned her head left and right and sees a number of shops and people walking by chatting and having fun.

“W-wait, I-I… You— what, huh? Ah! Don’t let go!”

She wrapped her arms tightly around Touma’s neck when she thought she was about to fall, almost choking him.

She was completely bewildered. She doesn’t remember anything between now and the living nightmare she had moments ago.

“Easy, easy. You passed out when Kuroko and Anti-Skill came to arrest those gang members.”

“I… I see… Wait, they were arrested?”

She expected a quick response, but Touma stayed silent for a moment.

“No, it seems they got away. Anti-Skill couldn’t arrest them.”

“Is that so…”

She was convinced that Touma forgot what happened to his life during the confrontation.

Masami hid her face behind Touma’s neck. She felt sort of embarrassed riding on his back, but at the same time she felt comfortable. She adjusted her legs wrapped around him slightly to have full body contact with his back.

Touma didn’t show any reaction to her sly movements, or anything else that pressed against his upper back.

“Masami, do you mind if I ask what Esper power you have?”

That question hit her like a ton of bricks. She was breathing heavily, trying to find out the best way to answer his question.

“Multi-skill,” she said straightforward.

“Wow, really? So, you have multiple Esper powers? That’s amazing!”

“Yeah…”

She bit her lip. It wasn’t a lie; she is an Esper with a remarkable ability: Multi-skill. An ability that allowed her to control a variety of different Esper abilities.

She wasn’t sure if she should go on further into explaining her powers.

“Hey… Touma, how good are you at keeping secrets? It’s just that—”

“You’re really powerful, Masami.”

She was taken aback by the sudden interruption.

“I mean it. You really are strong. I’m sure you can take care of yourself. Just remember, if you ever need any help, you can always come to me. No matter what, I’ll be there for you. Always.”

Her face turned a deep red and her heart started pounding. She was afraid Touma would be able to feel it through her chest.

“Why would you do that? For me?”

“Why not? It’s not like me to not offer my assistance for a friend. I can’t live with myself knowing that I could help a friend in need, but decided not to. Especially to one who I owe a lot to.”

“What do you mean?”

“I owe you, Masami. Thank you for saving my life.”

The moment she heard those words, tears started pouring out of her eyes and her heart felt like it would burst from her chest.

“I hate you, Touma! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!!!”

She cried as she tried choking Touma to death and break his neck.

Touma laughed and played along, relieved to see Masami feeling much better than before.

During their playful and one-sided emotional quarrel, they heard a loud commotion going on around the corner.

“Oh, I think there’s an arcade shop over there. Want to check it out?”

“An arcade shop? Is that the place with video games? I’ve never played a video game before.”

“You haven’t? C’mon, let’s have fun there.”

“Oh, uh, sure!” she said excitedly as she blushed. “I _think_ I played a video game before when I was young. I don’t quite remem— Touma, turn around.”

“What? Why?”

“Turn around. Turn around, please, turn around!”

**Part 42**

Limp bodies littered the floor of a dark room lit by flashing neon lights and large screens on machines of various shapes and sizes. Sounds of groaning and sobbing polluted the air along with constant ringing and robotic voices coming from the machines as they melt to a steam.

One poor soul was getting assistance from a female partner in order to get on his feet. As the girl threw the boy’s arm over her shoulder, she was taken aback by the intense body heat of a certain Esper who walked past her.

She looked up to see the face of the man who caused the total ruin of the area.

His crimson eyes flickered as they reflected the flashing neon lights spread throughout the room. Her legs started to shake not from carrying the heavy burden, but from the ominous gaze that was looming over her. She fumbled with her words as she tried to speak.

Amused at the tongue-tied girl, Damian smirks as he bends over to take a closer look. The girl gets startled by the attention he’s giving her and starts backing away slowly. Then, a sudden sensation starts heating up around her lower body causing her face to flush and almost drop the boy she was giving assistance to.

Satisfied with the reaction, Damian walked over to a table by the wall and dropped himself in one of the empty seats. He took a slice of pizza that was left on the table.  The cheese melts and a trail lands on the table as he jerks his head after biting it.

He looked around taking the time to marvel at his carnage.

“The Japanese sure know how to make some damn fun arcade games. Sucks that they can’t produce someone who could provide a decent challenge, though.”

His defeated opponents either laid lifeless on the floor or managed to crawl out of the arcade building. A large group of spectators have gathered outside of the entrance. They were too afraid to step in and challenge the boss waiting for them.

Sighing in boredom, he stared at the wall near him while he continued to eat his pizza. Lost in thought, he remembered back to what happened earlier that day. He met a mysterious blond boy inside the fire of the parking garage. Damian didn’t get to find out who he was or why he was there, but he denied being the one who started the fire. Damian knew it was very likely a lie, but the manner he spoke made it seem he was telling the very truth. Even if he wasn’t the one who started the fire, it didn’t make Damian feel better knowing that the cute girl in trouble was rescued by someone else.

It definitely hurt his pride.

However, what bothered Damian the most was the technique used to almost subdue him before he passed out. There was the ring of fire that he was unable to manipulate the heat of, and the wires that he was unable to burn away until realized the special properties associated with them.

If it were regular properties by the forces of nature, or at the very least conjured by an Esper, it would have been no problem. However, the fire and wires were certainly  of the magic variety.

A concept Damian used to think as ridiculous as a child. Now, he laughed remembering that the reason for him for being alive today is because of the existence of magic.

_“This is the real world.”_

Those words echoed in his head.

_“The people here have their own lives, goals, ideals. They are fully responsible for their own actions.”_

As he was being beaten down by that boy in the fire, those words were spat at him. Those words hurt him more than the physical blows; being treated as an outsider in a world he thought he truly belonged.

However, at the same time, he found some sort of relief in those words; knowing that’s the kind of world the people here live in, and there’s people that take it to heart.

With a sigh, Damian finished his pizza and pushed himself from the table. Spending more than enough time contemplating and now feeling bored of playing these arcade machines, Damian thought of doing some walking around. However, a shiver ran down his spine as soon as he saw a smug face that was all too familiar.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu stood in front of Damian with a large grin on his face.

“I see you’re having the time of your life.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Relax, big boy. I’m not here to fight. Well, I am, but in case you didn’t notice, we’re in an arcade shop. How about we settle it the old fashion way?”

“Old… fashion? Hey, wait up!”

Damian followed Tsuchimikado to the second row of arade machines near the wall furthest away from them.

Surrounded by a series of melted arcade machines was one machine that was untouched to the point it shined a pearly white. Compared to the rest of the machines the shop had, this one in particular looked very high-tech in comparison.

He couldn’t believe that he missed this machine. He thought maybe it stood out because of the other machines that were completely destroyed.

From the look of the pictures around the screen, it seems to be another 3D fighting game containing characters with a variety of Esper abilities.

“So, what’dyasay? Care for a couple of rounds?”

“For real? I guess there’s no harm in a bit of play time.”

Damian tried to keep his cool. He was overexcited about trying out this new game.

Tsuchimikado inserted a coin and slammed his fist against the machine. It was probably just to look cool, but the machine started the instant he hit it.

A number of characters appeared on the screen. All of them were obviously themed to represent their abilities.

Tsuchimikado’s face turned cat-like when he noticed one of the characters were dressed in a maid outfit.

“I didn’t know this game had this kind of girl in it! It’s a dream come true!”

“Are you… serious? Well, I’ll just go with one similar to mine. Let’s see… Huh, I guess this fire guy will do.”

“You can’t actually control fire, can you?”

Damian ignored his question and finished locking in his selected character.

Tsuchimikado decided not to push it any further and laughed, locking in his maid character.

Large numbers appeared on the screen counting down.

Damian and Tsuchimikado glared at each other with huge grins on their faces. There hands gripped tightly onto the stick and their buttons positioned over the buttons.

“You ready?”

“For the worst, you bastard.”

* * *

Damian slammed both his fists on the deck. His loud groans under each hard breath were drowned out by the loud and wild cheering coming from the surrounding spectators.

“I… I won…!”

“Yep, you sure did. Your overall stats are pretty outstanding as well. Perfect scores all around on the board.”

Damian didn’t think much about the score while he fought Tsuchimikado. All he had on his mind was winning. It was uncharacteristic for him to forgo looking impressive for the invisible camera and anyone who would possibly be watching, but he fought tooth and nail as if his life was on the line. Tsuchimikado was that kind of person to that to someone, whether he was serious about it or not.

He looked up at the screen to make sure what Tsuchimikado said was true. His eyes widen at the bright screen showing a number of large letters.

Tsuchimikado shook Damian’s shoulder, congratulating him.

“Niiice~! You sure put yourself on the pedestal. Look at those scores: S Rank in Power, S Rank in Combos, S Rank in Efficiency, S Rank in Style, S Rank in everything. It must reflect your S Rank lifestyle, huh?”

“I-I guess!”

Damian was embarrassed from the compliments as he showered himself with the cheering and praising from all the spectators. He was starting to feel like some sort of hometown hero that reached the pinnacle of life.

Then, something clicked in his head.

“Wait a minute…”

He looked back at the screen and looked over all of his stats. Something felt ominous about all the stats that were ranked S.

He then felt a cold metal pressed against the side of his head.

“You’re really good, Damian. Just not good enough.”

Tsuchimikado buried the barrel of his handgun against Damian’s skull, tilting it in a uncomfortable position.

“H-hold on, man… You can’t seriously do this here,” Damian said trying to persuade Tsuchimikado to calm down from causing trouble in front of a bunch of people.

“Look around. It’s not like anyone cares whether I blow your brains or not, right?”

Damian didn’t bother moving a muscle in the fear of accidentally provoking Tsuchimikado in pulling the trigger, but he didn’t have to look to hear the constant cheering from the crowd. The fact that a gun was being held to his skull was completely ignored.

“In fact, they won’t know what will happened until long after this is over. They’re probably watching you boast about your victory.”

“Is this magic?”

“Bingo~”

A special variation of an illusion-based magic field.

A slight simmer can be heard from the surface of Tsuchimikado’s handgun.

“Nuh-uh-uh~ Want to know why the gun is so cold?”

He forcefully shoved the gun’s barrel harder against Damian’s head.

“I made sure to encase it in ice for a little bit before I came here. You’re a damn powerful Esper, I’ll give you that, but doubt you can melt this gun fast enough. If I detect anything funny from you, I’ll make sure your brain splatters all over the damn floor.”

Damian couldn’t think of anything else to do. If he tried heating up Tsuchimikado’s gun, it would simmer and he would pull the trigger. If Tsuchimikado felt his body temperature rising, he would fire. Taking away his ability to breathe wouldn’t be able to stagger him enough to prevent him to shoot. Damaging the building’s property was out of the question too, especially with all the bystanders in the area.

Damian took a deep breath.

“Who put you up to this? You seem to know everything about me. I could take a guess, but it wouldn’t add up. I was told that I will finally be able to live in Academy City peacefully.”

“Hah! Is that what they told you? Listen, pal, you just have to accept the fact that you’re not one of these people. You don’t belong here. You shouldn’t even be allowed to share the same air.”

Damian was reminded of what Tsuchimikado said before at the burning parking garage. Just like that time, those words were painful to hear.

“These people live perfectly normal lives. They continue to live in ignorance to everything that goes on around them. You think they would accept you? A fabrication of someone else’s fucked up fetish? Do you honestly believe that you’re a human?”

He was unable to swallow his saliva. He clenched his teeth, looking down at the floor in shame. His heart stung from every word that came from Tsuchimikado’s mouth. Everything he had said, Damian believed to be true.

“There will be people after you. I guarantee it. They want you because you have something these people do not. You thought you were going to leave it all behind and be one of them. You’re wrong. You’re still what you are, and always will be. You just have to accept it.”

Damian took a deep breathe. He took in everything Tsuchimikado had said so far and took it to heart. He knew it was true and there was no denying it.

“So, you’re going to end it for me now?”

“On the contrary, my friend, I’ll be damned if I let this slip by me again.”

The cold metal left Damian’s head. He turned and saw Tsuchimikado’s gun dangling from his finger.

“You just have to accept it. No matter what you do or where you are, you can not change who you are. As long as you keep it like that, you think these people will honestly give a damn?”

To his surprise, the crowd were still cheering for him. Even if they weren’t exactly seeing what was actually happening, the scene was making Damian intoxicated. It felt as if he actually did belong and that’s all that mattered to him.

“Hurry up and take it. I’m starting to get freezer burn.”

“Wait, are you serious? A gun?”

“I told you, didn’t I? There will be people after you. It’s just a small back up.”

Damian hesitated, but he thought it through and managed to slowly take the cold gun from Tsuchimikado’s hand.

“You should put that thing away before you leave the arcade. Don’t want your trophy to ‘magically’ turn into a gun in public, do you?”

Tsuchimikado patted Damian’s shoulder as he headed towards the exit.

Damian watched him leave until he was lost through the parade of people. He looked down at the gun in his hands and thought about it some more. He thought his life was about to get much more interesting from now on. Whether it would be for the better was a different story.

* * *

Waiting for Tsuchimikado on the other side of the crosswalk was a woman with long black hair tied in a ponytail.

“Ah, Kanzaki. Surprised to see you here. Nice duds. You look good in denim,” he said. The sarcasm in his voice was painful. “Follow me.”

“I just wanted to make sure you didn’t get yourself in too much trouble. I’m not sure how much longer the magic field will last. You took way too long in there.”

“Hey now, I was having fun in there. You should loosen up and play some video games. I hear Kami is an avid gamer.”

“What does he have to do with this?” she said, looking away from Tsuchimikado to hide her red face.

They stopped next to a limo parked right next to a park across the street.

“The girl is doing well. They said she’ll be fully recovered in a few days and will immediately be put back to work.”

“Good to hear.”

“Hey. Was it worth going all this trouble just for this boy?”

Tsuchimikado paused for a moment. It was only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

“It’s not much of a secret anymore. If they want to live in Academy City, they have to learn the ground rules first.”

He opened the back seat of the limo and stepped inside.

“I want to show them that the real world isn’t ‘bright’ and ‘beautiful’ as it wants them to believe…”

Before Tsuchimikado shut the car door, he heard a playful laughter of a girl coming from the nearby park. As the car drove away, Tsuchimikado looked back and saw a female student wearing a Tokiwadai uniform chatting and laughing with another boy.

“…or at the very least, show them that it isn’t dark and ugly as theirs.”

He looked at his fellow companions who weren’t paying much attention to him.

“Isn’t that right, our dearest Number One?”

“Tch.”

* * *

Damian stared at the gun he held in his hands for moments longer before putting it away in his back pocket. He made sure his shirt was covering it.

He walked through the large crowd that were blocking the entrance. As he stepped out, he protected his eyes from the sharp rays of the sun. He forgot how long he was in the arcade.

At the corner of his eyes, he noticed a familiar high school boy. It was the same guy that he met in the cafe. What shocked him the most was the girl riding on his back trying to hide her face.

“Fan- _fucking_ -tastic.”

A voice that was all too familiar grabbed his attention.

His eyes widen at the sight of a boy wearing a blue buttoned summer shirt.

He then noticed a middle school girl that he has never seen before standing right next to him. His eyes ran up and down the girl’s body, making sure he was more than thorough enough to keep a vivid mental image in his head.

He looked back at the boy in blue with sharp, wicked eyes. A large grin grew on his face.

“Long time no see, Marvelous.”


	10. Reunion

**Part 43**

"Long time no see, Marvelous."

Mikoto was slightly confused at who the mysterious redhead was referring to before noticing his gaze pointing directly to the boy next to her.

_So his name is Marvelous?_

She thought that it was probably some sort of nickname similar to her title "Railgun", which was common for certain Espers to have.

Marvelous rolled his eyes, trying to bear the pain of having Damian's face, along with his shit-eating grin, in his sights.

"Alright, what are you doing here?"

"Hey, it's been awhile since we've seen each other and you're being mean to me? That's definitely not what I expected from you. I'm just watching over my kingdom," Damian said as he spread his arms, proudly displaying the parade of cheering fans.

Marvelous raised an eyebrow, but it didn't take long for him to realize that the cheering from the surrounding onlookers were directed at the redhead.

"But what I'm more interested in is who this cute girl you're hanging out with."

Mikoto was about to sigh at such a lousy attempt, but the smile on his face radiated a warm glow that caught her off-guard. She was used to the tired attempts of random guys, especially lowlife thugs, trying to hit on her, but this time it was a nice change of pace being approached by someone who was actually trying to be impressive. She was flattered, but she didn't think much of it other than him having good technique. He didn't seem to be looking for trouble, either. After all, he's apparently friends with Marvelous.

"Oh, my name is Mikoto Misaka. Nice to meet you."

"Damian. It's a pleasure."

"Damian? Wow, you're really fluent in Japanese."

"Thanks, but I've lived in Academy City for most of my life. I guess you can say that I'm pretty much a native. So, where were you heading?"

Damian reached his hand out for what seemed to be a normal handshake, but he extended his arm further than necessary.

Marvelous held onto Mikoto's shoulder and stepped in front, body blocking Damian's hand that was reaching for a confused Mikoto.

"We were about to head off somewhere, so I'll see ya around, I guess."

Damian froze for a moment as he stared at his hand that Marvelous intercepted. "I see," he said, letting out a chuckle. "Although, I don't think going that way is a good idea."

"Yeah? What makes you say that?" Marvelous looked back at him.

He continued taking a few steps before realizing Mikoto already stopped in her tracks.

"What's wrong?" Marvelous tugged on her arm but she didn't budge.

Damian pointed past them, "The guests have arrived."

"I wonder what got everyone so worked up about?" Touma walked through the wall of cheering fans until he finally found himself in an open space. "Oh, hey Mikoto. Didn't expect to see you here." He said matter-of-fact at the sight of the Tokiwadai student.

"What are you even doing here? And her?" Mikoto said as she ran up to him.

"What's with that? I was hanging out with Masami until we heard all this commotion going on."

The people around them continued to be loud and overbearing to the point that it seemed to be orchestrated by a group that just wanted to be a complete nuisance. Masami was getting irritated by how obnoxious it was and climbed off Touma's back.

"Why are all of you so annoying!?" she said as she stomped her foot on the ground causing a mild tremor.

Silence replaced the obnoxious cheers, the bystanders walked their separate directions like mindless drones.

Damian sighed to himself, talking under his breath. "I guess it was going to end some time, anyway."

"Huh? Where is everybody going?" Mikoto said in confusion, unaware of the action that caused the group of people to break away.

Masami held her head as she felt a stinging pain and stood with authority in front of the two bickering boys.

"Listen up, commoners. Explain to me exactly what was going on here. Why were there so many people—… Mikotooo~!"

Noticing the Level 5 Railgun was with them, she took the opportunity to pounce on her.

Familiar with this situation, Mikoto's instincts took over. Blue electricity ran through her body and released a spear of lightning from her hair. However, the electricity had no effect on Masami, leaving Mikoto completely vulnerable.

"Mikoto! So happy to see you!" Masami rubbed her cheeks against Mikoto's after tackling her to the ground. "Whoa, is that a Gekota? Wow, it looks like… wait… ice?"

"W-what are you two doing here!?"

"Oh, Masami and I were just around," Touma answered. "We heard a commotion going on so we thought we should check it out."

"We also had ice cream!" Masami said in glee.

"Eh? Ice cream?"

Damian pulled Masami off of Mikoto. "Okay, that's enough."

Masami clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes before throwing her body against Damian, letting out a satisfying sigh that sounded like a squeak as she hugged him, the heat emitting from his body soothed her heart.

She glanced at Marvelous to see his reaction, but her eye twitched when she realized he wasn't paying any attention to her.

_This guy…_

Instead, he was watching Mikoto having a conversation with the taller high school student.

"Honestly, could you please stop worrying so much? I said I'm fine. Something just happened and it left an emotional impact on me, you know? I prefer we don't talk about it."

"Well, okay then. It's just that I was really surprised to have seen you in such a state like that. It was just like that time. I just wanted to cheer you up."

"W-would you stop it already!?" Mikoto flustered. "I told you I'm better than ever. That's really sweet of you to care, but don't you go on and forget that I'm a Level 5. I can take care of myself."

Touma smiled, relieved to see Mikoto's unwavering attitude is still intact.

"I'm glad to hear that."

Mikoto stiffened and looked away as her face turned deep red.

"So, if that's the case, do you mind telling me what's that you're holding? Is that another one of your dumb cartoon frogs? It actually looks pretty expensive. You know, it would be wise to learn how to spend your money more carefully. I guess there's a lack of discipline when living a high-class lifestyle. I'm really disappointed in you, Misaka."

"Why you…!"

"Ah! Wait a minute!"

Masami and Marvelous watched as Touma and Mikoto had what seemed to be a lover's quarrel.

Marvelous was fascinated by how the boy nullified the electric shocks with just his right hand.

Masami, on the other hand, felt a heavy burden in her chest that caused her to shiver and hold her breath.

She wasn't sure on what was making her feel this way, or at least, she didn't want to accept it.

She felt as if she was losing some sort of battle.

Masami took a deep breath and sighed, looking at the ground disheartened.

A gentle breeze of cold air brushed against her skin, but at the same time an unusual warm radiance tickled her emotions.

Marvelous stood close enough for Masami to notice the warm, comforting gesture which contrasted with the cold air that seemed to wrap around her body, embracing her with a hug.

"Hey."

"'Sup?" Masami averted her gaze.

It was only a few minutes ago she was riding on Touma's back.

Marvelous and Damian were the last people she thought she would meet at this time. She did not expect to find herself in this position. If she could, she would take Touma and run off right now.

"What are you doing here, Marvee?"

"I could ask you the same thing. I was just with that walking forest over there."

"'Walking forest'?"

Masami noticed a faint scent wafting though the air that smelled like fresh trees. Realizing the source of the scent came from Mikoto, she pointed her sharp eyes at Marvelous in disgust.

"Huh. I never thought you'd be savage enough to go as far as marking a poor girl with such a scent. And all this time I thought of you as a stain of milksop on a man's boot."

"I missed you too."

"Are you for real…"

She bit her lip and shook her head in contempt, turning her back at him as she held her cardigan around her like a blanket to shield away his presence.

"Can you just leave me alone? The fact that you're here is making me sick, and I don't want to catch a cold. I know you're just doing it to piss me off."

Masami felt Marvelous's eyes on the back of her head.

Despite the cold air, she didn't feel at the least cold. She wasn't shivering and her speech pattern was normal, as well as her body temperature. Even without the need of sensing heat signatures, Marvelous could tell she was faking it by just looking at her.

In truth, she just did not want Marvelous near her. The thought of that boy made her head ache to the point that theImagine Breaker may not be able to ease the pain. She was sick to the point of preferring death than to be anywhere near him.

She stood still like a statue.

After a moment of silence, the first thing she heard was Marvelous's footsteps, and the cold air soon left her skin.

She did not bother to look at Marvelous's back;she sighed as she continued to stareat the ground. It was at this moment her body decided to shake once again as she clenched onto her cardigan.

It has been awhile since they've last seen each otherand for a moment she thoughtshe went too far to turn ,any hopeof reconciliation were dashed as she feltsick from using theamount of brain power to create an image of his face in her head.

Damian came from behind and rubbed her back in an effort to comfort her.

"Be honest. This reunion turned out to be better than expected."

After taking in a deep breath, Masami managed to show a weak smile.

"Well, at least I can't be disappointed in seeing you again, Lucee…"

She headed towards the entrance to the arcade shop and peeked around inside to see smoke coming from various colored machinery that have gone to the point of looking like melted ice cream.

"…Well, there's at least one thing."

**Part 44**

"So, you two had ice cream…?"

"Yeah, just before we got here. The weather wasn't all that extreme so we decided to have a refreshing snack. The ice cream parlor just a few blocks from here didn't have that many people, so it was pretty nice and enjoyable to have a place for ourselves."

"…"

The glass of a nearby street lamp shattered.

"M-Misaka!?"

"You insensitive jerk! Why do you always do this!?"

"I don't understand!" Touma stepped back and raised his right hand anticipating an electric shock.

"You… you…!"

Touma was startled by the constant popping and snapping of electricity coming from Mikoto.

She growled through her grinding teeth while her arms shook as she forced herself not to charge at him.

The electricity weakened.

Mikoto held both her arms across her chest, hiding the Ice Gekota behind her school bag.

"You… you could have ate pizza with us, you know," Mikoto hesitated as she thought of a reason. "Honestly, could you be any more careless?"

"Oh, is that all? I guess you're right, but this wasn't planned so I couldn't anticipate what I would be eating for the day. You haven't ate yet, right? I'll have some, but you go ahead and stuff yourself as much as you want."

Touma scratched the back of his head as he observed the front side of the arcade shop, wondering what food they sell other than pizza.

"A growing girl needs to eat, so I guess I can help you out with that. Let's see… I should still have cash left over from grocery shopping."

He expected some sort of response from Mikoto, but instead there was a long silence.

"…Misaka?"

"Could you do me a favor? Come here."

Touma didn't deny the seemingly innocent request and lowered his head to Mikoto's height.

Her hands were full.

Mikoto bashed Touma's face with her forehead, hard enough to send Touma back a distance and almost lose consciousness once he hit the ground. For a second, he thought his whole face had caved in.

"I can't believe you! You're such a jerk, you damn idiot! I hope you— dyah!"

Mikoto's head jerked forward after a hard smack hit her on the back of her head.

"What was that for!? …Huh?"

The boy in the summer shirt walked passed her and lend a hand to Touma who fallen from her sudden headbutt.

With a painful groan, Touma reached for the boy's hand to be pulled up.

"Thanks for that. Gah… I think my nose is broken."

"I think you'll be fine. Now, as for you…"

With a straight face, the boy turned his head towards Mikoto which made her stand up. His eyes were indifferent, but Mikoto felt like she was about to be interrogated by an overly aggressive detective who preferred more painful methods.

She took a quick glanced at the red-head boy she met earlier before looking back at the eyes that seemed to be drilling through her skull.

"Marvelous, was it? Uh, listen, this is just something we go through every day. It's all in good fun, r-right? Hey?"

They looked back at Touma who kept flinching from every gentle touch of his nose.

"Ah, just my luck," he winced.

"Yeah, he sure seems fine," Marvelous said.

Mikoto could only swallow her saliva and let out a nervous laugh.

Marvelous raised his hand in front of her.

She flinched, closing her eyes to get ready for the punishment for trying to deceive him.

However, instead of another smack on her head, a gentle touch on her forehead took her by surprise. Marvelous brushed away her bangs to reveal a red mark that almost blended in with her face that was already a bright red color from her verbal exchange with Touma.

She didn't notice it herself until the stinging pain made her seep through her teeth before the pain numbed and was replaced by a cold pressure like a medical ice patch.

"There, it's completely healed," assured Marvelous. "You shouldn't be so rough."

"Oh, uh, right, thanks…"

She still couldn't quite understand this boy. It's only been a couple days since she first met him, and within those days they've been enemies due to a misunderstanding and now, if the Ice Gekota is anything to go by, friends that, through a series of events, spent half the day together. He's also apparently friends with Masami, who Touma started hanging around with more often.

She didn't think there was a need to be on her guard around him any longer.

Still, it won't hurt asking a few questions the next time she sees one of her little sisters.

"Nice, Marvelous!"

That voice came from an excited Damian.

He ran up and hung his arm around Marvelous's shoulders while messing up his hair.

"I'm proud of ya, man. You've come a long way. Although, what about him? He doesn't look so good."

Touma sat against the wall of the arcade shop, covering his nose, his body slowly leaning to the side, fighting the fatigue setting in that will knock him out for a long time.

"Here, let me help you with that," Marvelous said as he checked the fallen boy's condition.

Touma's nose was broken, causing it to have extreme swelling and a shade of unusual color. Marvelous winced from the sight, but continued the job at hand before any infection made it worse.

What was puzzling him at this point was the fact that the nose was still broken and showed no signs of change or healing.

Panicking, he flicked his hand in the air before he shook Touma's shoulders to keep him from passing out.

"What the hell," Damian cried out. "Why did you freeze my whole arm!?"

"Why aren't my powers working on him?"

In the corner of his eye, Marvelous noticed Masami poking her head out and watching from the entrance to the arcade shop while shoving handfuls of fries into her mouth.

She was growing irritated seeing Marvelous being useless as usual, and disturbed seeing Damian taking the situation lightly by complaining about his frozen arm.

Tossing another handful of fries into her mouth, a single fry was sticking out between her lips. It wiggled and flailed around as if it was living and communicated through its movements. Masami observed the piece of fry and shook her head, denying whatever advice it was giving her.

Tired of the fried potato's bickering, she swallowed it and giggled to herself from hearing its cries of agony as it slid down her throat, then banged her head against the wall of the arcade shop.

Knowing Marvelous, he would be able to heal a broken limb to perfect order under normal circumstances, but it was unlikely he was aware of Touma's right hand, the Imagine Breaker.

If it was another place and time and around other people, Masami would happily heal Touma's broken nose. Her powers were capable of doing so, despite the nature of the Imagine Breaker. Its laws have no effect on her, because her powers transcends what the Imagine Breaker would consider to be its laws, and Touma is likely aware of that fact at this point.

What's making her hesitate was the fact that Marvelous was there.

Touma wasn't the only person to be aware of Masami's ability; Damian and Marvelous knew all about it as well. She also knew how the latter would react if he found out that she was using her ability openly.

However, it's been a month since they've last seen each other, and there wasn't anything that could actually physically stop her here in Academy City.

Why does she even care what he thinks?

"Let's just get him to the hospital, quickly."

As she heard that, Masami slammed her fist against the wall, making a deep imprint of her knuckles. Lights of various colors illuminated the room and noises of ringing and clanging of bells and other machinery echoed throughout, and computerized voices offering challenges with phrases such as: "Would you like to play", "Show us what you got", and "Please insert a coin".

Masami grinned and headed outside.

Mikoto, on the verge of tears, held Touma by his right arm, holding him against the wall. She had difficulty getting a comfortable hold onto him, because she was also carrying the Ice Gekota and her school bag.

"Hey," she whispered, "can you hear me? I'm really, really sorry."

She took a step forward and pulled Touma along with her, but his weight pulled her down, his body collapsing forward before Marvelous caught his other arm, helping her share the load by placing Touma's arm around his shoulder.

"Sorry, thanks. The hospital is pretty near. We can get there—"

"There's no need for that."

Masami walked up to them, a wide smile on her face that implied she knew a secret they don't, at the same time ridiculing their worth. She held Touma's face in her hands and examined his bruised nose. After a deep breath and gentle blow of air, a purple light enveloped his swollen nose like a cast.

The light reflected in Mikoto's eyes as she watched in awe. The lights put her in a trance as she tried to figure out exactly what Masami was doing.

Engrossed in her work, Masami's concentration broke from a sudden pull of her wrist almost making her fall to the side, her eyes then meeting Marvelous's. Surprised to see the ferocity of his sharp glare, a painful sting ran up her arm from his tight grip on her wrist. For a moment, fear found its way inside her head, but then she remembered the kind of relationship she has with that bastard and thought Touma's health was more important. Her smirk and sharp eyes revealed an expression that simply said: What are you going to do about it?

The shell on Touma's face started to expand and covered a larger area of his face before cracking, shattering into pieces to reveal his completely healed nose.

Mikoto blinked a few times to make sure what she saw actually happened. Numerous possible Esper abilities ran through her head, but none could explain how Masami healed Touma's nose down to the bone in such fashion. Doctors would be out of the job if whatever ability Masami had was more prevalent throughout Academy City's Espers.

"Easy as that," Masami giggled, proud of her work.

She snickered, pulling her hand away from Marvelous.

"Now, how about we—"

An explosion occurred inside Masami's head; her body jerked to the side, throwing herself against the wall.

Damian held her, helping her stand up. Despite the pain she was feeling, and it showed on her face, she managed to continue giving Marvelous a smug look. Without taking her eyes off him, she walked towards Touma without any grace in her steps, her legs feeling weak.

"Are you feeling alright?" Mikoto asked before having Touma's limp arm snatched away from her.

"I'll be fine," Masami responded without taking her eyes off Marvelous, smiling once she realized how close his face was to Touma's.

As she held Touma's right hand, she leaned closer and her lips brushed against his chin before leaving her mark just to the side of his lips.

This only took a few seconds, but it felt like hours, and Masami never left her gaze from Marvelous through all of it.

Focused so much on Marvelous, she hadn't noticed the reaction on Mikoto's face. Wide-eyed, Mikoto froze, speechless, choking on air as she tried to find the words to speak out.

Like a sleeping beauty, Touma's eyes finally opened soon after the kiss.

"What… where…?"

Masami's eyes beamed.

"Touma, you're awake! Let's go!"

"H-huh? Ah! Hey! Hold on a minute!"

Without giving Touma a chance to collect his thoughts, Masami ran while pulling him along with her, leaving the other three behind.

Damian chased her, but gave up after only a few steps, realizing that she's too far to catch up now.

"Puts on a little light show for something so trivial and then just runs off like that," Damian said shaking his head. "I guess we gotta go catch her the hard way, huh, Marvelous? …Marvelous?"

"Look, Mikoto, they have ice hockey."

"Yeah, okay. I'll play a few games."

"You guys aren't even gonna try!?"

**Part 45**

Kuroko and Saten were walking around the streets of Academy City.

"Keep a look out," Kuroko commanded. "We need to find Sissy fast. Who knows what trouble she's gotten herself into."

"Why are you so worried? I'm sure she's fine. She always has before, hasn't she?"

"That's not the point. There's no way Sissy's signal could just disappear out of the blue like that. Something must have happened to her."

"Signal? Did you really put a tracking device on Misaka?"

Kuroko promptly ignored Saten's attempt at questioning her by looking around as if she's found a trail.

Saten shook her head with a smile and then checked her phone.

"Hey Shirai, heard about this rumor about a haunted dorm of a certain middle school?"

"I don't have time for silly make-believe ghost stories."

"What do you mean by 'make-believe'? These rumors are a hundred percent real, and they say the ghost lurks around one of the dorm rooms of a certain Tokiwadai Middle School."

"Uiharu…"

"Don't ask me," said a voice coming from Kuroko's earpiece. "Saten has decided to go rogue, and I have nothing to do with it. That being said, I've also heard about that rumor."

Kuroko sighed, seeing through both the girls' ploy. She started feeling uncomfortable with how close Saten was walking next to her.

"You do know you're welcome to Sissy and my room any time, don't you? You don't have to make up a silly tale just to get permission."

"No, no, my eyes are set on the 'Ghost of Tokiwadai'. You know, they say the ghost is a spirit of a lost and forgotten Esper who died from a broken heart and is waiting for a young body worthy enough to become its vessel. Hey, do you think Misaka will want to go ghost hunting with us?"

"No, absolutely not!" Kuroko covered her ears. "How could you think of something so despicable like that? My Sissy will not go on such a misguided goose chase just to sacrifice her perfect succulent body with so much potential to some miserable, lonely spirit!"

She banged her head against he pavement, ridding her thoughts about the possibility of a manifestation from a folklore having its way with her beautiful upperclassman, Mikoto Misaka.

Somewhat expecting that kind of reaction from Kuroko, Saten was getting a kick out of the hilarious scene, but also quite embarrassed having to calm the teleporter down in front of an audience.

From Kuroko's ear piece was Uiharu's voice, "Don't lose yourself, Shirai. Besides, if there really was a ghost haunting Tokiwadai, you'd know it by now, right? You are a student of Tokiwadai, after all."

"O-of course. Silly of me to overreact to such a silly bedtime story."

"Don't worry, if it turns out there really is a ghost, Saten and I will make sure Mikoto stays perfectly safe."

"Uiharu…!"

Suddenly, they heard screaming towards the direction of the park.

The traffic lights and the glass on the street lamps lined up with the sidewalk shattered. Television sets displayed behind a nearby store window exploded, shattering the glass that contained them.

The earpiece short circuited and popped out of Kuroko's ear; her and Saten's phones then short circuited in their pockets, shocking them.

They ran towards the source of the panicking and saw a large condensed ball of electricity. Sparks flew out keeping anyone who wished to live far away from it.

Kuroko could barely make out a silhouette of a young female inside the large ball of light.

The ball of electricity slowly moved towards Kuroko and Saten until the electricity slowly tamed itself and withered away like a dying light bulb.

Kuroko took small steps towards the spot where the light vanished, waving her hand in front of her checking for lingering electricity, or anything else that may seem unusual.

She struggled to see in the dark with the street lamps and every other light source either shattered or malfunctioning. Her only source of light left was the moon, and light coming from buildings much further away to be of any use.

"Is it safe?" Saten stood a safe distance away. "What do you think that was?"

"Not sure, but I think I have an idea."

Kuroko peeked inside the nearby arcade shop in search for any possible casualties. It was more difficult to see in the dark building than it was outside, but it seemed everyone inside was safe, if only frightened.

The arcade machines, and other electronics inside, had no such luck. The smell of smoke wafted in the air.

There were only students present that wanted to spend their last hours having fun until curfew. However, Kuroko couldn't recognize anyone she knew in there.

"Perhaps not. I don't get it, what was that all about?"

Nearby students who stayed away but watched the electrical phenomena happen were checking their phones, music players, and other mobile devices just to find them unable to function properly, if at all.

"Saten, I can't get a hold of Uiharu. You should get to safety and head back home. I'll be heading back to Judgment headquarters."

Kuroko vanished, leaving Saten by herself.

"Man… this is definitely weird. I guess I have no choice."

"Ah!"

A sudden yell and loud thump caused Saten to turn around, just to see the pink hair teleporter who left only seconds ago on the ground.

"Shirai, are you alright?"

"What happened? I tried to teleport, but all of a sudden I appeared where I didn't want to be."

Getting back on her feet and dusting off her clothes, she took a deep breath and smacked both her cheeks.

"Maybe I somehow distracted myself? Okay, I'm leaving now. You should too."

She vanished once again, but then reappeared and disappeared again in rapid, erratic successions until falling onto the middle of the streets from a few meters in the air.

Her body bruised from the fall, she struggled to get on her feet. She vanished once more.

Saten screamed in horror when the pink teleporter once again reappeared in front of her, but her body now punctured by one of the street lamps.

Kuroko's neck jerked, startled by Saten's ear-piercing scream. "Relax," she said while heavily panting, "It's just my skirt."

From Saten's point of view, it looked as if Kuroko teleported into the street lamp and her lower body punctured by the metal.

Kuroko's breathing was rather heavy. She knew if she was only an inch off, she would have been seriously injured, if not dead.

"Are you alright?" Saten hurried to Kuroko, letting out a deep breath in relief to see her friend mostly unharmed. "What were you even trying to do?"

Kuroko continued breathing heavily, shaking her head to collect her thoughts.

"I wasn't trying to do anything. I don't understand why, but for some reason, I'm unable to teleport accordingly to my calculations. I'm not doing anything wrong, but it's like something is taking my calculations and throwing them out the window."

She tore her skirt from the shattered street lamp and fell to her knees exhausted as Saten held onto her shoulders and helped her back on her feet.

"Shirai, let's just walk back to Uiharu."

"Right…"

As they headed off towards the Judgement headquarters, a blinding blue light brighter than the sun appeared from a distance.

Kuroko held her hand in front or else she believed her eyes were going to melt, but as the light slowly faded away, followed a tremendous explosive roar that could rival the loudest volcanoes.

Covering her ears, she was unable to stand properly, the loudness felt like it was physically putting pressure on her.

As if nature was playing around with its on-off switch, the blue light would turned the sky day for a couple seconds before disappearing, only to repeat again and again while the explosive sounds of thunder and lightning followed; it was nature torturing all living beings with the ability to see and hear.

**Part 46**

Damian leaned against the street lamp, checking his phone while taking a sip of his soda.

According to the time, they've been in the arcade for many hours and is almost curfew. Normally, at this time, Damian would be mentally stripping the female students walking back to their dorms from their after-school activities. What he thought was strange, however, was that there weren't any female students walking by. In fact, other than Marvelous and Mikoto, he hasn't seen anyone else since their reunion. The arcade even lacked employees, giving them free reign of unlimited games, food, and beverages.

Other than the quiet hum from the spinning propellers of the generators, the streets were silent and barren.

It seemed as if the city was void of life.

Damian looked at his phone again. There was no mistaking it; it was almost 8pm.

He then heard footsteps coming from the arcade.

"Something was definitely off about that game," Mikoto said in frustration. "Every time I play against you, nothing seemed to go as I planned. Rotations, angles, speed… I calculated it all perfectly."

"Calculated?" Marvelous raised his eyebrow, refusing to bite and said, "What, do you mean magnetism?"

"No idea what you're talking about," Mikoto continued to feign innocent, leaning over to take a sip from one of the cups of soda Marvelous held for her. "Anyway, it's been fun and all, but I must have spent hours in there. I really hope Kuroko doesn't—… oh, there's still time left for the day?"

The sun lingered in the blue sky far too long to be natural. It seemed to be fixated on the same spot; it hasn't moved since they went inside.

"It's just past eight," Damian told Marvelous when he reached for his phone.

Mikoto looked over his shoulder and said, "You're right… So, what's going on?" She look at both of them before observing her surroundings. "Wait, why isn't there anyone here?"

As she said that, Damian looked at Mikoto with intent, examining every inch of her body, his eyes were sharp as if he was zooming into the molecules of her skin and clothing.

Marvelous held himself back when he noticed Damian's stare, but the look in his eyes was different from his usual eye-ing with women. He took interest in the sparks of electricity emanating from her body normal people wouldn't be able to see.

"Electromagnetism…" he said under his breath.

Surprised by the sudden remark, Mikoto nodded in confirmation.

He turned his attention back to his soda, popped the plastic cover off and gulped the contents down along with the ice. Once empty, the cup incinerated faster than a second.

"Babe—"

"What the hell did you just call me?"

"—at this moment, you're releasing a large amount of electromagnetic waves. Without even realizing it."

Following along, she confirmed what she thought was obvious and well-known to all Espers; AIM Diffusion Fields.

"Good," Damian said putting his phone away. "Anyway, yours has gone unstable for some reason, and I think I know why."

"Hold on a minute, what you're saying doesn't make any sense. There's no way you could actually  _see_  AIM. I mean, I guess a certain Esper could detect it… but in any case, how are you even able to—"

"I'll explain later," Damian interrupted after realizing the mistake of giving away too much information, and noticing a look on Marvelous's face saying to stop talking. "What's important is that your AIM has gone unstable. If my guess is correct, it's being forcefully amplified due to the environment we're in."

"Hold on, do you mean 'AIM Diffusion Field Resonance'?"

Marvelous took a sip from one of the cups of soda, not giving much thought to which cup was his, and said, "'Resonance' occurs when similar diffusion fields are in vicinity to one another. What you're trying to say is that Mikoto's electromagnetism has gone unstable, because it's only responding to the change in her surroundings in order to achieve equilibrium."

Damian thinned his eyes as he looked at Marvelous. "So, you understand our situation, don't you, Marvelous?"

"I understand that Masami and her new friend are probably in the same situation and we should go look for them. We just need to find the source of the problem and deal with it."

"You bastard…" Damian growled through his teeth. He grabbed Marvelous by the collar and held him up against the wall, spilling the drinks. "Why are you so relaxed? We could do this smoothly and go on with our lives if you would just allow me to—"

Sensing the growing malice between the two boys, Mikoto stepped in between them, shoulder bashing Damian in the process, but not hard enough to make him let go.

"What's with you two!? Stop leaving me out. I'm not sure what's going on, but you two seem to know everything, so stop fighting and just tell me what you know. You said Masami and… that idiot are in the same situation as we are, so we should go look for them and make sure they're safe, right? Let me help."

Her face turned a shade of red from the slight hesitation in her voice, but Damian saw the fire in her eyes; a hidden motive behind the sudden determination.

Marvelous noticed this, and with a mental sigh to himself, looked back at Damian and said, "With the position of the sun, it probably started right before Masami left, which means she and that boy are probably walking around confused as we are. We just have to go find them, then find the source of this mess, and we're good. Obviously, this isn't some sort of coincidence. We're being targeted."

"Tch," Damian tossed Marvelous to the side in a manner of saying "fuck off", but he then chuckled to himself. "Alright,  _captain_ , we'll do it your way. You're lucky I still feel high from seeing my bro again."

Damian turned his attention to Mikoto who looked even more confused than before.

"Okay, okay, fine. Babe—"

"I swear."

"—you know anything about the four fundamental forces?"

As an Esper of electromagnetism, Mikoto had a thorough understanding of the four fundamental forces, especially regarding her own Esper ability; Strong Force, Electromagnetism, Weak Force, and Gravity.

"The reason why your electricity is acting all weird is because it's reacting to the sudden change of one of the fundamental forces; Gravity. To put it simply, the reason why it's still day time and there's no one else in sight, is 'cuz somehow gravity has been altered and is distorting the fabric of space-time and warped us into a separate layer from the real world. In other words, another dimension."

"…Hy… Hya—!? That's not simple!" Mikoto cried out; Marvelous rolled his eyes from Damian's blatant explanation. She held the Ice Gekota against the side of her head hoping the coolness of it would calm her growing headache. "I need to wrap my head around this. You're making absolutely no sense. How is that even possible? It sounds like something from a science fiction. Seriously, tell me what the hell is going on."

Marvelous assured her, "It plays a big role in an upcoming story arc in one of those mangas you read."

Mikoto disregarded Damian's explanation. Instead, she was on the verge of choking Marvelous to death for the unneeded spoilers.

"Stop fucking with me, damnit!"

High-voltage electricity scattered across the pavement, covering a large surface area that seemed to reach a whole block.

"Do you take me for an idiot!?"

Lightning bolts flew out from Mikoto's body which emitted a white blueish glow, and a thunderous roar that could be heard from miles away.

The explosive sounds frightened her, causing her to panic while electric bolts are shot out from her body, electrical appliances in the surrounding area such as the traffic lights short circuit and burst.

Panicked screams were heard from different directions.

Transparent silhouettes that looked like ghosts of students appeared around her and screamed, running away as if they saw a monster inside Mikoto.

"W-what's happening?"

She stepped back as she watched the ghostly figures run from her in fear.

Electricity continued to emit from her body until she felt a hand hold her by the waist.

"Just calm down," Damian comforted her. The electricity started to draw towards Damian and was absorbed through his hand, flowing up through his arm until the Mikoto finally relaxed and the electricity from her body diminished. "That's what happens when you overdo it. Normally, it would be fine, but not in here. You saw those people run, right? They saw you because your massive release of electromagnetism was so powerful, it almost put you into equilibrium and back into the real world."

He felt her shiver.

"Okay," she gulped. "I believe you. I still don't understand… but I'll listen."

Damian smiled in relief at her cooperation.

That smile vanished after realizing his actions.

Mikoto's sudden discharge of a billion volts of electricity, amplified by the distortion of gravitons in the current environment, would have annihilated a regular human being. Naturally, in this situation, Damian had to protect Marvelous and himself. He did so by absorbing the massive influx of electricity into his body; a technique he had no choice but to use if he wanted both of them to live and to bring Mikoto back to her normal state.

It was a mental block he was forced to bypass in order to survive.

That wasn't the only action Damian found himself to be doing out of instinct.

Reaching out for Mikoto was also pure instinct; it was natural for him to support a cute girl in need, especially one who was in trouble.

Both of these actions were possible triggers that would warrant him a death sentence.

Clenching his teeth, the hand on Mikoto's waist started to twitch. Thoughts rushed through his head thinking whether to take this opportunity to give a seemingly comforting embrace.

He peeked behind his shoulder and noticed Marvelous looking straight at him. Marvelous was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed as if nothing had happened just a moment ago. He did nothing else but his usual bored shrug, but a look of disappointment was evident.

Damian wasn't sure which Marvelous was disappointed about the most, but the lack of any aggressive reaction was a bit of surprise. Marvelous probably knew the stakes of the life and death situation they were in.

Not wanting to push it any further, Damian let go of Mikoto and patted her on the head.

"Relax. Leave it to us. We'll find your friend and we'll go back to our world in no time."

As he said that, a loud explosion was heard a number of kilometers away, but it wasn't the regular sound that would result into a mass of destruction; it was a loud thump like a large bubble popping or a ball thrown against concrete. It was loud enough to prevent anyone from being able to hear but their own heartbeat; the feeling felt like time stopped for a moment.

From the source of the explosion, whole buildings and vehicles were tossed into the sky. Once they were up in the air, they did not follow any kind of fixed trajectory on their way down; they were being swung around in unpredictable angles until they crashed, causing clouds of smoke and debris as buildings were demolished.

The impact caused surrounding buildings to collapse from the shockwaves. The shockwave was large enough to reach the park, flattening trees while the ground cracked, portions of the earth elevated while others sank.

The three Espers were slowly raised into the air by an unknown force, but couldn't do anything other than watch the destruction unfold before their eyes.


End file.
